The Actinocerida are an order of generally straight, medium to large cephalopods that lived during the early and middle Paleozoic, distinguished by a siphuncle composed of expanded segments that extend into the adjacent chambers, in which deposits formed within contain a system of radial canals and a narrow space along the inner side of the connecting ring known as a paraspatium.

They first appear late in the Early Ordovician (Cassinian Stage, late Floian) with the Georginidae but don't become well established until the beginning of the early Whiterockian Stage (Dapingian) of the Middle Ordovician (Flower 1868,1976) The Georginidae, introduced and described by Mary Wade in 1977 (Wade 1988), based on the genus Georgina, are known from the upper Canadian Coolibah Formation of the Georgina Basin in Northern Australia.

[2] However, it turned out based on a reassessment of Lower Ordovician and Whiterockian formations in northeastern China that Polydesmia is antedated by Wutinoceras,[3] its assumed primitive nature rather a derived condition.

Originating in the Ordovician, by the Devonian period actinocerids became rare; perhaps they were unable to compete with the more compact and maneuverable coiled nautiloids and ammonoids and cope with the arrival of jawed fish.

The Actinocerida contain nine families; the Georginidae, Wutinoceratidae, Polydesmiidae, Armenoceratidae, Ormoceratidae, Actinoceratidae, Gonioceratidae, Lambeoceratide, and Huroniidae.