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A primary difference between ammonites and nautiloids is the siphuncle of ammonites (excepting Clymeniina) runs along the ventral periphery of the septa and camerae (i.e., the inner surface of the outer axis of the shell), while the siphuncle of nautiloids runs more or less through the center of the septa and camerae.
Nautiloids are typically considered one of three main groups of cephalopods, along with the extinct ammonoids (ammonites) and living coleoids (such as squid, octopus, and kin). While ammonoids and coleoids are monophyletic clades with exclusive ancestor-descendant relationships, this is not the case for nautiloids.
The sutures of nautiloids are by comparison somewhat simpler, being either straight or slightly curved, whereas later ammonoids showed suture patterns of increasing complexity. One explanation for this increasing extravagancy in suture pattern is that it leads to a higher strength of the shell.
In most fossil nautiluses, the siphuncle runs more or less through the center of each chamber, but in ammonites and belemnites it usually runs along the ventral edge of the shell. In some fossil straight shelled nautiloids, cylindrical calcareous growths ("siphuncular deposits") around the siphuncle can be seen towards the apex of the shell.
Septa (singular septum) are thin walls or partitions between the internal chambers of the shell of a cephalopod, namely nautiloids or ammonoids. As the creature grows, its body moves forward in the shell to a new living chamber , secreting septa behind it.
Nautiloids were much more extensive and varied 200 million years ago. The ancestors of all Coleoidea (shell-less Cephalopods) once possessed shells, and many early cephalopod species are only known from shell remains. Following the K-Pg extinction event most nautiloid species went extinct, while members of Coleoidea managed to survive ...
These can be seen in cross-sections of a nautilus shell and in the polished cross-sections of ammonites. In life these chambers are filled with gas, mediated by the siphuncle, and used to control buoyancy. Some Palaeozoic nautiloid genera, especially those with long, straight shells, are distinguished by cameral deposits.
An ammonitic ammonoid with the body chamber missing, showing the septal surface (especially at right) with its undulating lobes and saddles. The ancestors of coleoids (including most modern cephalopods) and the ancestors of the modern nautilus, had diverged by the Floian Age of the Early Ordovician Period, over 470 million years ago.