The nautilus (, ) is a
pelagic
The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or w ...
marine
mollusc of the
cephalopod family Nautilidae. The nautilus is the sole extant family of the superfamily
Nautilaceae
The Nautilaceae form one of five superfamilies that make up the Nautilida according to Bernard Kummel (1964), and the only one that survived past the Triassic. The Nautilaceae comprise six families: Nautilidae, Paracenoceratidae, Pseudonautilidae ...
and of its smaller but near equal suborder,
Nautilina
The Nautilina is the last suborder of the Nautilida and the only nautiloids living since the end of the Triassic. The Nautilina, proposed by Shimanskiy, is basically the Nautilaceae of Kummel, 1964, defined by Furnish and Glenister, but differs ...
.
It comprises nine living species in two genera, the
type of which is the genus ''
Nautilus
The nautilus (, ) is a pelagic marine mollusc of the cephalopod family Nautilidae. The nautilus is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and of its smaller but near equal suborder, Nautilina.
It comprises six living species in ...
''. Though it more specifically refers to species ''
Nautilus pompilius
The chambered nautilus (''Nautilus pompilius''), also called the pearly nautilus, is the best-known species of nautilus. The shell, when cut away, reveals a lining of lustrous nacre and displays a nearly perfect equiangular spiral, although it ...
'', the name
chambered nautilus is also used for any of the Nautilidae. All are protected under
CITES Appendix II
CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of interna ...
. Depending on species, adult shell diameter is between .
Nautilidae, both extant and extinct, are characterized by
involute
In mathematics, an involute (also known as an evolvent) is a particular type of curve that is dependent on another shape or curve. An involute of a curve is the locus of a point on a piece of taut string as the string is either unwrapped from or ...
or more or less convolute shells that are generally smooth, with compressed or depressed
whorl sections, straight to sinuous sutures, and a tubular, generally central
siphuncle.
[Kümmel, B. 1964. Nautiloidae-Nautilida, in the ]Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology
The ''Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology'' (or ''TIP'') published by the Geological Society of America and the University of Kansas Press, is a definitive multi-authored work of some 50 volumes, written by more than 300 paleontologists, and co ...
, Geological Society of America and Univ of Kansas Press, Teichert and Moore eds. Having survived relatively unchanged for hundreds of millions of years, nautiluses represent the only living members of the subclass
nautiloidea
Nautiloids are a group of marine cephalopods (Mollusca) which originated in the Late Cambrian and are represented today by the living ''Nautilus'' and '' Allonautilus''. Fossil nautiloids are diverse and speciose, with over 2,500 recorded specie ...
, and are often considered "
living fossil
A living fossil is an extant taxon that cosmetically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old relative to the time of origin of the extant clade. Living foss ...
s".
![The_first_and_oldest_fossil_of_Chambered_Nautilus_displayed_at_Philippine_National_Museum](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/The_first_and_oldest_fossil_of_Chambered_Nautilus_displayed_at_Philippine_National_Museum.jpg)
The word nautilus is derived from the Greek word ''nautílos'' "sailor", it originally referred to a type of octopus of the genus ''
Argonauta'', also known as 'paper nautilus', which were thought to use two of their arms as sails.
Anatomy
Cirri
The "tentacles" of the nautilus are actually
cirri
Giovanni Battista Cirri (1 October 1724 – 11 June 1808) was an Italian cellist and composer in the 18th century.
Biography
Cirri was born in Forlì in the Emilia-Romagna Region of Italy. He had his first musical training with his brother ...
(singular: cirrus), composed of long, soft, flexible appendages which are retractable into corresponding hardened sheaths. Unlike
the 8–10 head appendages of
coleoid
Subclass Coleoidea,
or Dibranchiata, is the grouping of cephalopods containing all the various taxa popularly thought of as "soft-bodied" or "shell-less" (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttlefish). Unlike its extant sister group, Nautiloidea, whose ...
cephalopods, nautiluses have many cirri. In the early embryonic stages of nautilus development, a single
molluscan foot differentiates into a total of 60–90 cirri, varying even within a species. Nautilus cirri also differ from the tentacles of some coleoids in that they are non-elastic and lack pads or suckers. Instead, nautilus cirri adhere to prey using their ridged surface. Nautiluses have a powerful grip, and attempts to take an object already grasped by a nautilus may tear away the animal's cirri, which will remain firmly attached to the surface of the object.
The main cirri emerge from sheaths which cohere into a single firm fleshy mass. Also, the pair of cirri before the eye (pre-ocular) and the pair of cirri behind the eye (post-ocular) are separate from the others. These are more evidently grooved, with more pronounced ridges. They are extensively
ciliated and are believed to serve an
olfactory purpose.
Digestive system
The
radula is wide and distinctively has nine teeth.
The mouth consists of a
parrot-like beak made up of two interlocking jaws capable of ripping the animal's food— mostly crustaceans— from the rocks to which they are attached.
Males can be superficially differentiated from females by examining the arrangement of tentacles around the buccal cone: males have a
spadix organ (shaped like a spike or shovel) located on the left side of the cone making the cone look irregular, whereas the buccal cone of the female is
bilaterally symmetrical
Symmetry in biology refers to the symmetry observed in organisms, including plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria. External symmetry can be easily seen by just looking at an organism. For example, take the face of a human being which has a pla ...
.
[
The crop is the largest portion of the digestive tract, and is highly extensible. From the crop, food passes to the small muscular stomach for crushing, and then goes past a digestive caecum before entering the relatively brief intestine.
]
Circulatory system
Like all cephalopods, the blood of the nautilus contains hemocyanin
Hemocyanins (also spelled haemocyanins and abbreviated Hc) are proteins that transport oxygen throughout the bodies of some invertebrate animals. These metalloproteins contain two copper atoms that reversibly bind a single oxygen molecule (O2) ...
, which is blue in its oxygenated state. There are two pairs of gill
A gill () is a respiratory organ that many aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are ...
s which are the only remnants of the ancestral metamerism to be visible in extant cephalopods. Oxygenated blood arrives at the heart through four ventricles and flows out to the animal's organs through distinct aortas but returns through veins which are too small and varied to be specifically described. The one exception to this is the vena cava, a single large vein running along the underside of the crop into which nearly all other vessels containing deoxygenated blood empty. All blood passes through one of the four sets of filtering organs (composed of one pericardial appendage and two renal appendages) upon leaving the vena cava and before arriving at the gills for re-oxygenation. Blood waste is emptied through a series of corresponding pores into the pallial cavity
The mantle (also known by the Latin word pallium meaning mantle, robe or cloak, adjective pallial) is a significant part of the anatomy of molluscs: it is the dorsal body wall which covers the visceral mass and usually protrudes in the form of ...
.
Nervous system
The central component of the nautilus nervous system is the oesophageal nerve ring A circumesophageal or circumpharyngeal nerve ring is an arrangement of nerve ganglia around the esophagus/ pharynx of an animal. It is a common feature of nematodes, molluscs, and many other invertebrate animals, though it is absent in all vertebra ...
which is a collection of ganglia, commissure
A commissure () is the location at which two objects abut or are joined. The term is used especially in the fields of anatomy and biology.
* The most common usage of the term refers to the brain's commissures, of which there are five. Such a commi ...
s, and connectives that together form a ring around the animal's oesophagus. From this ring extend all of the nerves forward to the mouth, tentacles, and funnel; laterally to the eyes and rhinophore
A rhinophore is one of a pair of chemosensory club-shaped, rod-shaped or ear-like structures which are the most prominent part of the external head anatomy in sea slugs, marine gastropod opisthobranch mollusks such as the nudibranchs, sea ha ...
s; and posteriorly to the remaining organs.
The nerve ring does not constitute what is typically considered a cephalopod "brain": the upper portion of the nerve ring lacks differentiated lobes, and most of the nervous tissue appears to focus on finding and consuming food (i.e., it lacks a "higher learning" center). Nautili also tend to have rather short memory spans, and the nerve ring is not protected by any form of brain case.
Shell
Nautili are the sole living cephalopods whose bony body structure is externalized as a planispiral shell
Shell may refer to:
Architecture and design
* Shell (structure), a thin structure
** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses
** Thin-shell structure
Science Biology
* Seashell, a hard o ...
. The animal can withdraw completely into its shell and close the opening with a leathery hood formed from two specially folded tentacle
In zoology, a tentacle is a flexible, mobile, and elongated organ present in some species of animals, most of them invertebrates. In animal anatomy, tentacles usually occur in one or more pairs. Anatomically, the tentacles of animals work ma ...
s. The shell is coiled, aragonitic, nacreous and pressure-resistant, imploding at a depth of about . The nautilus shell is composed of two layers: a matte
Matte may refer to:
Art
* paint with a non-glossy finish. See diffuse reflection.
* a framing element surrounding a painting or watercolor within the outer frame
Film
* Matte (filmmaking), filmmaking and video production technology
* Matte p ...
white outer layer with dark orange stripes, and a striking white iridescent inner layer. The innermost portion of the shell is a pearlescent blue-gray. The osmeña pearl, contrarily to its name, is not a pearl
A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...
, but a jewellery
Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry (U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a wester ...
product derived from this part of the shell.
Internally, the shell divides into camerae (chambers), the chambered section being called the phragmocone
The phragmocone is the chambered portion of the shell of a cephalopod. It is divided by septa into camerae.
In most nautiloids and ammonoids, the phragmocone is a long, straight, curved, or coiled structure, in which the camarae are linked by a ...
. The divisions are defined by septa
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly 4 million people in five c ...
, each of which is pierced in the middle by a duct, the siphuncle. As the nautilus matures, it creates new, larger camerae and moves its growing body into the larger space, sealing the vacated chamber with a new septum. The camerae increase in number from around 4 at the moment of hatching
Hatching (french: hachure) is an artistic technique used to create tonal or shading
Shading refers to the depiction of depth perception in 3D models (within the field of 3D computer graphics) or illustrations (in visual art) by varying ...
to 30 or more in adults.
The shell coloration also keeps the animal cryptic in the water. When seen from above, the shell is darker in color and marked with irregular stripes, which helps it blend into the dark water below. The underside is almost completely white, making the animal indistinguishable from brighter waters near the surface. This mode of camouflage
Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...
is called countershading
Countershading, or Thayer's law, is a method of camouflage in which an animal's coloration is darker on the top or upper side and lighter on the underside of the body. This pattern is found in many species of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, a ...
.
The nautilus shell presents one of the finest natural examples of a logarithmic spiral
A logarithmic spiral, equiangular spiral, or growth spiral is a self-similar spiral curve that often appears in nature. The first to describe a logarithmic spiral was Albrecht Dürer (1525) who called it an "eternal line" ("ewige Linie"). More ...
, although it is not a golden spiral
In geometry, a golden spiral is a logarithmic spiral whose growth factor is , the golden ratio. That is, a golden spiral gets wider (or further from its origin) by a factor of for every quarter turn it makes.
Approximations of the golden spira ...
. The use of nautilus shells in art and literature is covered at nautilus shell.
Size
''N. pompilius'' is the largest species in the genus. One form from Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
and northern Australia, once called ''N. repertus'', may reach in diameter. However, most nautilus species never exceed . '' Nautilus macromphalus'' is the smallest species, usually measuring only . A dwarf population from the Sulu Sea ('' Nautilus pompilius suluensis'') is even smaller, with a mean shell diameter of .
Physiology
Buoyancy and movement
To swim, the nautilus draws water into and out of the living chamber with its hyponome
A siphon is an anatomical structure which is part of the body of aquatic molluscs in three Class (biology), classes: Gastropoda, Bivalvia and Cephalopoda (members of these classes include saltwater and freshwater snails, clams, octopus, squid and ...
, which uses jet propulsion
Jet propulsion is the propulsion of an object in one direction, produced by ejecting a jet of fluid in the opposite direction. By Newton's third law, the moving body is propelled in the opposite direction to the jet. Reaction engines operatin ...
. This mode of propulsion is generally considered inefficient compared to propulsion with fins or undulatory locomotion
Undulatory locomotion is the type of motion characterized by wave-like movement patterns that act to propel an animal forward. Examples of this type of gait include crawling in snakes, or swimming in the lamprey. Although this is typically the ...
, however, the nautilus has been found to be particularly efficient compared to other jet-propelled marine animals like squid and jellyfish
Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrell ...
, or even salmon
Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus ''Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Oncorhy ...
at low speeds. It is thought that this is related to the use of asymmetrical contractile cycles and may be an adaptation to mitigate metabolic demands and protect against hypoxia when foraging at depth. While water is inside the chamber, the siphuncle extracts salt
Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...
from it and diffuses it into the blood.
The animal adjusts its buoyancy
Buoyancy (), or upthrust, is an upward force exerted by a fluid that opposes the weight of a partially or fully immersed object. In a column of fluid, pressure increases with depth as a result of the weight of the overlying fluid. Thus the ...
only in long term density changes by osmosis
Osmosis (, ) is the spontaneous net movement or diffusion of solvent molecules through a selectively-permeable membrane from a region of high water potential (region of lower solute concentration) to a region of low water potential (region o ...
, either removing liquid from its chambers or allowing water from the blood in the siphuncle to slowly refill the chambers. This is done in response to sudden changes in buoyancy that can occur with predatory attacks of fish, which can break off parts of the shell. This limits nautiluses in that they cannot operate under the extreme hydrostatic pressure
Fluid statics or hydrostatics is the branch of fluid mechanics that studies the condition of the equilibrium of a floating body and submerged body " fluids at hydrostatic equilibrium and the pressure in a fluid, or exerted by a fluid, on an imm ...
s found at depths greater than approximately , and in fact implode at about that depth, causing instant death. The gas also contained in the chambers is slightly below atmospheric pressure at sea level. The maximum depth at which they can regulate buoyancy by osmotic removal of chamber liquid is not known.
The nautilus has the extremely rare ability to withstand being brought to the surface from its deep natural habitat without suffering any apparent damage from the experience. Whereas fish or crustaceans brought up from such depths inevitably arrive dead, a nautilus will be unfazed despite the pressure change of as much as . The exact reasons for this ability, which is thought to be coincidental rather than specifically functional, are not known, though the perforated structure of the animal's vena cava
In anatomy, the venae cavae (; singular: vena cava ; ) are two large veins (great vessels) that return deoxygenated blood from the body into the heart. In humans they are the superior vena cava and the inferior vena cava, and both empty into the ...
is thought to play an important role.[
]
Senses
Unlike many other cephalopods, nautiluses do not have what many consider to be good vision; their eye structure is highly developed but lacks a solid lens
A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements ...
. Whereas a sealed lens allows for the formation of highly focused and clear, detailed surrounding imagery, nautiluses have a simple pinhole
A hole is an opening in or through a particular medium, usually a solid body. Holes occur through natural and artificial processes, and may be useful for various purposes, or may represent a problem needing to be addressed in many fields of en ...
eye open to the environment which only allows for the creation of correspondingly simple imagery.
Instead of vision, the animal is thought to use olfaction (smell) as the primary sense for foraging
Foraging is searching for wild food resources. It affects an animal's fitness because it plays an important role in an animal's ability to survive and reproduce. Foraging theory is a branch of behavioral ecology that studies the foraging behavi ...
and for locating and identifying potential mates.
The "ear" of the nautilus consists of structures called '' otocysts'' located immediately behind the pedal ganglia near the nerve ring. They are oval structures densely packed with elliptical calcium carbonate crystals.
Brain and intelligence
Nautiluses are much closer to the first cephalopods that appeared about 500 million years ago than the early modern cephalopods that appeared maybe 100 million years later (ammonoids
Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttlefish) ...
and coleoids). They have a seemingly simple brain
A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a ve ...
, not the large complex brains of octopus, cuttlefish and squid, and had long been assumed to lack intelligence. But the cephalopod nervous system is quite different from that of other animals, and recent experiments have shown not only memory, but a changing response to the same event over time.
In a study in 2008, a group of nautiluses (''N. pompilius'') were given food as a bright blue light flashed until they began to associate the light with food, extending their tentacles every time the blue light was flashed. The blue light was again flashed without the food 3 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 6 hours, 12 hours, and 24 hours later. The nautiluses continued to respond excitedly to the blue light for up to 30 minutes after the experiment. An hour later they showed no reaction to the blue light. However, between 6 and 12 hours after the training, they again responded to the blue light, but more tentatively. The researchers concluded that nautiluses had memory capabilities similar to the " short-term" and " long-term memories" of the more advanced cephalopods, despite having different brain structures. However the long-term memory capability of nautiluses was much shorter than that of other cephalopods. The nautiluses completely forgot the earlier training 24 hours later, in contrast to octopuses, for example, which can remember conditioning for weeks afterwards. However, this may be simply the result of the conditioning procedure being suboptimal for sustaining long-term memories in nautiluses. Nevertheless, the study showed that scientists had previously underestimated the memory capabilities of nautiluses.
Reproduction and lifespan
Nautiluses reproduce by laying egg
An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...
s. Gravid females attach the fertilized eggs, either singly or in small batches, to rocks in warmer waters (21–25 Celsius), whereupon the eggs take eight to twelve months to develop until the juveniles hatch. Females spawn once per year and regenerate their gonads, making nautiluses the only cephalopods to present iteroparity or polycyclic spawning.
Nautiluses are sexually dimorphic
Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...
, in that males have four tentacles modified into an organ, called the " spadix", which transfers sperm into the female's mantle during mating. At sexual maturity, the male shell becomes slightly larger than the female's. Males have been found to greatly outnumber females in practically all published studies, accounting for 60 to 94% of all recorded individuals at different sites.
The lifespan of nautiluses may exceed 20 years, which is exceptionally lengthy for a cephalopod, many of whom live less than three even in captivity and under ideal living conditions. However, nautiluses typically do not reach sexual maturity until they are about 15 years old, limiting their reproductive lifespan to often less than five years.
Ecology
Range and habitat
Nautiluses are only found in the Indo-Pacific, from 30° N to 30° S latitude and 90° E to 175° E longitude. They inhabit the deep slopes of coral reef
A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups.
C ...
s.
Nautiluses usually inhabit depths of several hundred metres. It has long been believed that nautiluses rise at night to feed, mate, and lay eggs
Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...
, but it appears that, in at least some populations, the vertical movement patterns of these animals are far more complex. The greatest depth at which a nautilus has been sighted is (''N. pompilius''). Implosion depth for nautilus shells is thought to be around . Only in New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands
The Loyalty Islands Province (French ''Province des îles Loyauté'') is one of three administrative subdivisions of New Caledonia encompassing the Loyalty Island (french: Îles Loyauté) archipelago in the Pacific, which are located northeast of ...
, and Vanuatu
Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...
can nautiluses be observed in very shallow water, at depths of as little as . This is due to the cooler surface waters found in these southern hemisphere habitats as compared to the many equatorial habitats of other nautilus populations – these usually being restricted to depths greater than . Nautiluses generally avoid water temperatures above .
Diet
Nautiluses are scavengers and opportunistic predators. They eat molt
In biology, moulting (British English), or molting (American English), also known as sloughing, shedding, or in many invertebrates, ecdysis, is the manner in which an animal routinely casts off a part of its body (often, but not always, an outer ...
s of lobsters, hermit crab
Hermit crabs are anomuran decapod crustaceans of the superfamily Paguroidea that have adapted to occupy empty scavenged mollusc shells to protect their fragile exoskeletons. There are over 800 species of hermit crab, most of which possess an as ...
s, and carrion of any kind.
Evolution
Fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
records indicate that nautiloids have not evolved much during the last 500 million years. Many were initially straight-shelled, as in the extinct genus '' Lituites''. They developed in the Late Cambrian period and became a significant group of sea predator
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...
s during the Ordovician
The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya.
T ...
period. Certain species reached over in size. The other cephalopod subclass, Coleoidea
Subclass Coleoidea,
or Dibranchiata, is the grouping of cephalopods containing all the various taxa popularly thought of as "soft-bodied" or "shell-less" (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttlefish). Unlike its extant sister group, Nautiloidea, whos ...
, diverged from the nautiloids long ago and the nautilus has remained relatively unchanged since. Nautiloids were much more extensive and varied 200 million years ago. The ancestors of all Coleoidea
Subclass Coleoidea,
or Dibranchiata, is the grouping of cephalopods containing all the various taxa popularly thought of as "soft-bodied" or "shell-less" (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttlefish). Unlike its extant sister group, Nautiloidea, whos ...
(shell-less Cephalopods) once possessed shells, and many early Cephalopod species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
are only known from shell remains. Following the K-Pg extinction event most Nautiloid
Nautiloids are a group of marine cephalopods (Mollusca) which originated in the Late Cambrian and are represented today by the living ''Nautilus'' and '' Allonautilus''. Fossil nautiloids are diverse and speciose, with over 2,500 recorded specie ...
species went extinct, while members of Coleoidea managed to survive. Following the mass extinction the Nautilus became the only extant species of Nautiloids. Extinct relatives of the nautilus include ammonites, such as the baculites and goniatite
Goniatids, informally goniatites, are ammonoid cephalopods that form the order Goniatitida, derived from the more primitive Agoniatitida during the Middle Devonian some 390 million years ago (around Eifelian stage). Goniatites (goniatitids) survi ...
s.
The family Nautilidae has its origin in the Trigonocerataceae (Centroceratina
The Trigonoceratoidea are a superfamily within the Nautilida that ranged from the Devonian to the Triassic, thought to have contained the source for the Nautilaceae in which ''Nautilus'' is found.
Trigonoceratoidea are characterized by open-sp ...
), specifically in the Syringonautilidae of the Late Triassic
The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch of the Triassic Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch and followed by the Early Jurassic Epoch. ...
and continues to this day with ''Nautilus
The nautilus (, ) is a pelagic marine mollusc of the cephalopod family Nautilidae. The nautilus is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and of its smaller but near equal suborder, Nautilina.
It comprises six living species in ...
'', the type genus, and its close relative, ''Allonautilus
The genus ''Allonautilus'' contains two species of nautiluses, which have a significantly different morphology from those placed in the sister taxon '' Nautilus''. ''Allonautilus'' is now thought to be a descendant of ''Nautilus'', rendering t ...
''.
Fossil genera
The fossil record of Nautilidae begins with '' Cenoceras'' in the Late Triassic, a highly varied genus that makes up the Jurassic
The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...
''Cenoceras'' complex. ''Cenoceras'' is evolute to involute, and globular to lentincular; with a suture that generally has a shallow ventral and lateral lobe and a siphuncle that is variable in position but never extremely ventral or dorsal. ''Cenoceras'' is not found above the Middle Jurassic and is followed by the Upper Jurassic-Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...
''Eutrephoceras
''Eutrephoceras'' is an extinct genus of nautilus from the Late Jurassic to the Miocene (around 161 to 5 million years ago). They are characterized by a highly rounded involute shell with slightly sinuous suture patterns.
Description
''Eutrep ...
''.
''Eutrephoceras
''Eutrephoceras'' is an extinct genus of nautilus from the Late Jurassic to the Miocene (around 161 to 5 million years ago). They are characterized by a highly rounded involute shell with slightly sinuous suture patterns.
Description
''Eutrep ...
'' is generally subglobular, broadly rounded laterally and ventrally, with a small to occluded umbilicus, broadly rounded hyponomic sinus, only slightly sinuous sutures, and a small siphuncle that is variable in position.
Next to appear is the Lower Cretaceous
Lower may refer to:
*Lower (surname)
*Lower Township, New Jersey
*Lower Receiver (firearms)
*Lower Wick
Lower Wick is a small hamlet located in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is situated about five miles south west of Dursley, eig ...
'' Strionautilus'' from India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and the European ex-USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
, named by Shimankiy in 1951. ''Strionautilus'' is compressed, involute, with fine longitudinal striations. Whorl sections are subrectangular, sutures sinuous, the siphuncle subcentral.
Also from the Cretaceous is '' Pseudocenoceras'', named by Spath in 1927. ''Pseudocenoceras'' is compressed, smooth, with subrectangular whorl sections, flattened venter, and a deep umbilicus. The suture crosses the venter essentially straight and has a broad, shallow, lateral lobe. The siphuncle is small and subcentral. ''Pseudocenoceras'' is found in the Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
and in Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...
.
'' Carinonautilus'' is a genus from the Upper Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', th ...
of India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, named by Spengler in 1919. ''Carinonautilus'' is a very involute form with high whorl section and flanks that converge on a narrow venter that bears a prominent rounded keel. The umbilicus is small and shallow, the suture only slightly sinuous. The siphuncle is unknown.
''Obinautilus
''Obinautilus'' is an extinct genus of shelled cephalopod that has been variously identified as an argonautid octopodMartill, D.M. & M.J. Barker (2006). A paper nautilus (Octopoda, ''Argonauta'') from the Miocene Pakhna Formation of Cyprus. '' ...
'' has also been placed in Nautilidae by some authorities, though it may instead be an argonautid octopus.
Taxonomy
The family Nautilidae contains up to six extant species and several extinct species
This page features lists of extinct species, organisms that have become extinct, either in the wild or completely disappeared from Earth.
In actual theoretical practice, a species not definitely located in the wild in the last fifty years of cur ...
:
*Genus ''Allonautilus
The genus ''Allonautilus'' contains two species of nautiluses, which have a significantly different morphology from those placed in the sister taxon '' Nautilus''. ''Allonautilus'' is now thought to be a descendant of ''Nautilus'', rendering t ...
''
**'' A. perforatus''
**'' A. scrobiculatus''
*Genus ''Nautilus
The nautilus (, ) is a pelagic marine mollusc of the cephalopod family Nautilidae. The nautilus is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and of its smaller but near equal suborder, Nautilina.
It comprises six living species in ...
''
**'' N. belauensis''
**†'' N. cookanum''
**'' N. macromphalus''
**'' N. pompilius'' ( type)
***''N. p. pompilius''
***''N. p. suluensis''
**†'' N. praepompilius''
**'' N. stenomphalus''
Recent genetic data has pointed to there being only three extant species: ''A. scrobiculatus'', ''N. macromphalus'', and ''N. pompilius'', with ''N. belauensis'' and ''N. stenomphalus'' both subsumed under ''N. pompilius'', possibly as subspecies.
Dubious or uncertain taxa
The following taxa
In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...
associated with the family Nautilidae are of uncertain taxonomic status:
Conservation status and human use
Nautilus are collected or fished for sale as live animals or to carve the shells for souvenirs and collectibles, not for just the shape of their shells, but also the nacreous inner shell layer, which is used as a pearl
A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...
substitute. Nautilus shells were popular items in the Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
and Baroque cabinet of curiosities and were often mounted by goldsmith
A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Nowadays they mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, goldsmiths have also made silverware, platters, goblets, decorative and servicea ...
s on a thin stem to make extravagant nautilus shell cups. The low fecundity
Fecundity is defined in two ways; in human demography, it is the potential for reproduction of a recorded population as opposed to a sole organism, while in population biology, it is considered similar to fertility, the natural capability to pr ...
, late maturity, long gestation period and long life-span of nautiluses suggest that these species are vulnerable to over-exploitation and demand for the ornamental shell is causing population declines. The threats from trade in these shells has led to countries such as Indonesia legally protecting the chambered nautilus with fines of up to US $8,500 and/or 5 years in prison for trading in this species. Despite their legal protection, these shells were reported to be openly sold at tourist areas in Bali as of 2014. The continued trade of these animals has led to a call for increased protection and in 2016 all species in Family Nautilidae were added to CITES Appendix II
CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of interna ...
, regulating international trade.
File:Berlín KGM nautilus.JPG, Baroque ''nautilus cup'' of Aleksander Kęsowski, abbot of Oliwa
Oliwa ( la, Oliva; csb, Òlëwa; german: Oliva) is a northern district of the city of Gdańsk, Poland. From east it borders Przymorze and Żabianka, from the north Sopot and from the south with the districts of Strzyża, VII Dwór and Brętow ...
, 1643–1667[
File:Nautilus shell carved and painted C19th Poldi Pezzoli Museum.jpg, Nautilus shell carved and painted with fanciful scenes of human figures and animals (spider, dragonfly, dog, butterfly, sawfly, fly), bronze pendant mount, nineteenth century. Poldi Pezzoli Museum, Milan
File:A Bowing in Art 1996.jpg, Nautilus shell in art 1996
]
See also
* Cephalopod size
Cephalopods vary enormously in size. The smallest are only about long and weigh less than at maturity, while the largest—the giant and colossal squids—can exceed in length and weigh close to half a tonne (), making them the largest living ...
, for maximum shell diameters
* '' Historiae animalium'' by Conrad Gessner
Conrad Gessner (; la, Conradus Gesnerus 26 March 1516 – 13 December 1565) was a Swiss physician, naturalist, bibliographer, and philologist. Born into a poor family in Zürich, Switzerland, his father and teachers quickly realised his tale ...
, first book with fossil illustrations
* '' The Nautilus'', a malacological journal
* ''The Chambered Nautilus'', a poem of Oliver Wendell Holmes
*Nautilus Pompilius
The chambered nautilus (''Nautilus pompilius''), also called the pearly nautilus, is the best-known species of nautilus. The shell, when cut away, reveals a lining of lustrous nacre and displays a nearly perfect equiangular spiral, although it ...
, a Russian rock band
References
Notes
Bibliography
* Ward, P.D. 1988. ''In Search of Nautilus''. Simon and Schuster.
*
External links
Nautilidae discussion forum
tonmo.com
Waikïkï Aquarium: Marine Life Profile: Chambered Nautilus
waguarium.org
A molecular and karyological approach to the taxonomy of ''Nautilus''
utmb.edu
{{Authority control
Articles containing video clips
Extant Triassic first appearances