The shell is a smooth, gently expanding orthocone with straight transverse to oblique and slightly sinuous sutures.
Endosiphuncular deposits tend to grow forward, normally completed annularly at the septal foramina (openings) before fusing ventrally.
Dolorthoceras is recognized as a pseudorthocerid, nautiloid cephalopods that resemble but are not true orthocerids.
It is assigned to the family Spyroceratidae along with such genera as Spyroceras, Adnatoceras, and Euloxoceras.
It was most likely an ambush predator lying in wait here and there on the shallow sea bottom.