Nautilus (genus)

This article is about the genus Nautilus. For the family of Nautilidae, see Nautilus.
See also: Chambered nautilus

Nautilus
Temporal range: late Eocene–Recent[1]
A live Nautilus pompilius in an aquarium
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Subclass: Nautiloidea
Order: Nautilida
Family: Nautilidae
Genus: Nautilus
Linnaeus, 1758
Type species
N. pompilius
Living species

Nautilus is a marine cephalopod genus in the mollusk family Nautilidae. Species in this genus differ significantly, morphologically, from the two nautilus species in the adjacent sister-taxon Allonautilus.[2] The oldest fossils of the genus are known from the Late Eocene Hoko River Formation, in Washington State and from Late-Eocene to Early Oligocene sediments in Kazakhstan.[1] The oldest fossils of the modern species Nautilus pompilius are from Early Pleistocene sediments off the coast of Luzon in the Philippines.[1]

The commonly used term 'nautilus' usually refers to any of the surviving members of Nautilidae, and more specifically to the Nautilus pompilius species. The entire family of Nautilidae, including all species in the genera Nautilus and Allonautilus, is listed on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).[3]

Various authors claim that the genus consists of between four and seven extant species; this remains the subject of debate.[4][5] Nautiloids are typically found in shallow ocean waters in tropical seas, mainly within the Indo-Pacific, from the Coral Triangle and Strait of Malacca to the open water South Pacific islands.[4] The genus Nautilus includes several species represented in the fossil record; however, these have also been contentious in their placement, and some are only provisionally accepted.[6]

  1. ^ a b c Wani, R.; et al. (2008). "First discovery of fossil Nautilus pompilius (Nautilidae, Cephalopoda) from Pangasinan, northwestern Philippines". Paleontological Research. 12 (1): 89–95. doi:10.2517/1342-8144(2008)12[89:FDOFNP]2.0.CO;2. S2CID 129517075.
  2. ^ Ward, P. D.; Saunders, W. B. (1997). "Allonautilus: a new genus of living nautiloid cephalopod and its bearing on phylogeny of the Nautilida". Journal of Paleontology. 71 (6): 1054–64. Bibcode:1997JPal...71.1054W. doi:10.1017/S0022336000036039. JSTOR 1306604. S2CID 87319305.
  3. ^ "Checklist of CITES species".
  4. ^ a b Saunders, W. Bruce. Landman, Neil H. (2010). Nautilus : the biology and paleobiology of a living fossil. Springer. ISBN 978-90-481-3298-0. OCLC 613896438.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ Ward, Peter; Dooley, Frederick; Barord, Gregory Jeff (29 February 2016). "Nautilus: biology, systematics, and paleobiology as viewed from 2015". Swiss Journal of Palaeontology. 135 (1): 169–185. doi:10.1007/s13358-016-0112-7. ISSN 1664-2376. S2CID 87025055.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference GoedertEtAl was invoked but never defined (see the help page).