Order
Cyrtonellida HORNÝ, 1963
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Family
Protoconchoididae GEYER, 1994
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(orthographic variant, ex Protoconchioididae; =
Patelliconidae FRÝDA, 1998
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)
D i s c u s s i o n: The genus
Patelliconus HORNÝ, 1961
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was originally placed in the family
Hypseloconidae KNIGHT, 1956
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( Horný 1961, 1963). Yochelson (1977) reported
Patelliconus
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as a monoplacophoran of the family
Hypseloconidae
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from the Ordovician of Norway. For the genus
Protoconchoides SHAW, 1962 a
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separate family was established,
Protoconchoididae
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, by Geyer, 1994 (spelled as Protoconchioididae)and located within the order
Tryblidiida LEMCHE, 1957
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. In 2002, Horný listed
Patelliconus
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, although tentatively, as a gastropod under the family
Archinacellidae KNIGHT, 1956
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or?Protoconchioididae GEYER, 1994. The family
Protoconchoididae
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is transferred here to the order
Cyrtonellida HORNÝ, 1963
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, which has priority over the order
Kirengellida ROZOV, 1975
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(see Peel 1991). Thus the superficially similar genus
Kirengella ROZOV, 1968
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, reported by several authors from Cambrian to Ordovician strata (e.g. by Doguzhaeva 1972, 1981, Rozov 1975, Stinchcomb 1986, Webers, Pojeta Jr., and Yochelson 1992, Geyer 1994, Stinchcomb and Angeli 2002) belongs in the same order. Unfortunately, the majority of the described species of
Kirengella
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lack shells and their muscle scars are rare, poorly preserved or unknown. As already noted by Horný (2006a), the family
Kirengellidae STAROBOGATOV, 1970
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requires a detailed study of better preserved specimens and critically defined genera. An important criterion could be either presence of a muscle zone consisting of more or less equivalent muscle scars or coalesced muscle scars in a continuous band-like ring. This complicated situation can be illustrated by the well-known specimen of Rasetti´s
Scenella sp.
undet. (1954), tentatively assigned to
Protoconchoides
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by Geyer (1994) as
Protoconchioides? rasettii
n. sp., and reinterpret- ed by Peel (1991) as a helcionellid.
Frýda (1998) established a new family
Patelliconidae
of unceratin class affinity, based on
Patelliconus HORNÝ, 1961 and
containing, besides
Patelliconus
, a Lower Devonian genus
Chuchleconus FRÝDA, 1998
. Because the shell morphology and musculature of
Protoconchoides SHAW, 1962
and
Patelliconus HORNÝ, 1961
are almost identical, the family
Patelliconidae
is here synonymized with the family
Protoconchoididae Geyer, 1994
.
I n c l u d e d g e n e r a:
Patelliconus HORNÝ, 1961
;
Protoconchoides SHAW, 1962
;
Chuchleconus FRÝDA, 1998
;
Mytoconula
gen. n.
D i s t r i b u t i o n: middle Cambrian; Ordovician; Lower
Devonian.