Nautilus praepompilius

Nautilus praepompilius is an extinct species of nautilus. It lived from the Late Paleocene through Oligocene epochs. The first fossil specimens discovered in the Late Eocene to Oligocene-aged Chegan Formation of Kazakhstan: an additional, older specimen was found in the Late or Latest Paleocene-aged Pebble Point Formation in Victoria, Australia. N. praepompilius has been grouped into a single genus together with extant species based on their shared shell characters. It is morphologically closest to N. pompilius, hence the name. The nepionic constriction shows that the hatching size was approximately 23 mm, close to that for N. pompilius. N. praepompilius, along with aff. N. cookanum fossils from the late Eocene Hoko River Formation in Washington state are the oldest occurrences of the genus.

Nautilus praepompilius

Dunstan AJ, Ward PD, Marshall NJ · CC BY 2.5 · via Wikidata/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
NautilusPBDB
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 22 million years on record.

The record covers at least 56 Mya to 33.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 59.24 Mya to 27.3 Mya.

Paleocene — about 1 of 4 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 2 of 4 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 4 occurrencesOligocene60–59 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences59–58 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences58–57 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56 Mya33.9 Mya59.9 Mya26.7 Mya

4 occurrences of Nautilus praepompilius on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

4 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

3 formations

Chegan — 46.60°N, 56.80°EChegan — 46.95°N, 60.50°EUzunbas — 43.82°N, 51.72°EPebble Point — 38.73°S, 143.18°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Nautilus praepompilius has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Nautilus praepompilius and its relatives

Eocene

Where Nautilus praepompilius and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

No other named taxon is catalogued from any of those sites.

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Nautilus praepompilius, and this reads all of them.

Entered from

2 references

Each of the 4 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Nautilus praepompilius

Credit
Dunstan AJ, Ward PD, Marshall NJ
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Nautilus praepompilius was found in Sketchfab.

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 itNautilus through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Shimansky 1957