Nautilus

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. 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. The oldest fossils of the modern species Nautilus pompilius are from Early Pleistocene sediments off the coast of Luzon in the Philippines.

Nautilus

Uncredited · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
NautilidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Nautilidae
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Nautilidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Nautilidae
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda

Time the record covers

At least 303 million years on record.

The record covers at least 303.7 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 306 Mya to 0 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 2 of 110 occurrencesPermian — about 3 of 110 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 1 of 110 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 16 of 110 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 5 of 110 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 1 of 110 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 110 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 110 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 4 of 110 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 8 of 110 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 110 occurrencesEocene — about 9 of 110 occurrencesOligocene — about 2 of 110 occurrencesMiocene — about 28 of 110 occurrencesPliocene — about 1 of 110 occurrencesPleistocene — about 2 of 110 occurrences312–302 Mya — about 2 occurrences260–250 Mya — about 3 occurrences250–239 Mya — about 15 occurrences239–229 Mya — about 6 occurrences229–218 Mya — about 1 occurrence218–208 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences208–198 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences198–187 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences146–135 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences135–125 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences114–104 Mya — about 2 occurrences104–94 Mya — about 3 occurrences94–83 Mya — about 3 occurrences83–73 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences73–62 Mya — about 2 occurrences62–52 Mya — about 1 occurrence52–42 Mya — about 4 occurrences42–31 Mya — about 6 occurrences31–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–10 Mya — about 26 occurrences10–0 Mya — about 32 occurrences303.7 Mya11.7 ka312 Mya0 Mya

110 occurrences of Nautilus on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

110 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

38 formations

Shark River Marl — 40.20°N, 74.17°WShark River Marl — 40.24°N, 74.00°WSchreyeralm — 47.58°N, 13.59°ENullarbor — 31.66°S, 128.89°ENullarbor — 30.48°S, 131.51°ENullarbor — 31.38°S, 131.14°EShihmen — 23.91°N, 121.05°EShark River — 40.20°N, 74.17°WChegan — 46.60°N, 56.80°EChegan — 46.95°N, 60.50°EFyansford — 38.24°S, 145.03°EFyansford — 38.13°S, 144.29°EBotneheia — 78.48°N, 15.56°EBotneheia — 78.50°N, 15.86°EPottawatomie — 39.16°N, 94.48°WEutaw — 32.77°N, 87.87°WEutaw — 32.36°N, 86.34°WForbes — 38.99°N, 122.23°WMekran — 25.33°N, 63.33°ESanta Cruz — 16.26°N, 119.92°EValudavur — 12.03°N, 79.75°EHoko River — 48.38°N, 124.66°WGambier — 36.95°S, 140.76°EMannum — 34.92°S, 139.31°EBeer Head Limestone — 50.69°N, 3.21°WLower Chalk — 51.08°N, 1.17°EPort Campbell Limestone — 37.74°S, 141.94°EAstoria — 46.19°N, 123.83°WUzunbas — 43.82°N, 51.72°EPebble Point — 38.73°S, 143.18°EUpper Greensand — 50.59°N, 1.24°W

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The named rock units Nautilus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 57 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Nautilus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Nautilus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

796 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 97 sites for Nautilus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

41 references

Each of the 110 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 29 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Nautilus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itNautilidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758