Nautiloidea

Searched as Nautiloidea indet.. The Paleobiology Database treats Nautiloidea as the accepted name.

Nautiloids are a group of cephalopods (Mollusca) which originated in the Late Cambrian and are represented today by the living Nautilus and Allonautilus. Fossil nautiloids are diverse and species rich, with over 2,500 recorded species. They flourished during the early Paleozoic era, when they constituted the main predatory animals. Early in their evolution, nautiloids developed an extraordinary diversity of shell shapes, including coiled morphologies and giant straight-shelled forms (orthocones). No orthoconic and only a handful of coiled species, the nautiluses, survive to the present day.

Nautiloidea

J. Baecker · 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
NautilidaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Nautilida
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Nautilida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Nautilida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda

Time the record covers

At least 443 million years on record.

The record covers at least 477.1 Mya to 33.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 488.9 Mya to 27.3 Mya.

Cambrian — about 0 of 578 occurrencesOrdovician — about 120 of 578 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 118 of 578 occurrencesDevonian — about 124 of 578 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 149 of 578 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 14 of 578 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 3 of 578 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 3 of 578 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 12 of 578 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 578 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 2 of 578 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 578 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 16 of 578 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 12 of 578 occurrencesPaleocene — about 2 of 578 occurrencesEocene — about 2 of 578 occurrencesOligocene — about 1 of 578 occurrencesMiocene — about 0 of 578 occurrences498–482 Mya — about 2 occurrences482–466 Mya — about 15 occurrences466–450 Mya — about 56 occurrences450–434 Mya — about 83 occurrences434–418 Mya — about 89 occurrences418–402 Mya — about 46 occurrences402–386 Mya — about 23 occurrences386–370 Mya — about 42 occurrences370–354 Mya — about 8 occurrences354–338 Mya — about 11 occurrences338–322 Mya — about 43 occurrences322–306 Mya — about 16 occurrences306–290 Mya — about 79 occurrences290–274 Mya — about 3 occurrences274–258 Mya — about 5 occurrences258–242 Mya — about 10 occurrences242–226 Mya — about 11 occurrences210–194 Mya — about 2 occurrences178–162 Mya — about 2 occurrences162–146 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences146–130 Mya — about 2 occurrences130–114 Mya — about 4 occurrences114–98 Mya — about 11 occurrences98–82 Mya — about 4 occurrences82–66 Mya — about 7 occurrences66–50 Mya — about 2 occurrences50–34 Mya — about 2 occurrences34–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence477.1 Mya33.9 Mya498 Mya18 Mya

578 occurrences of Nautiloidea on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

578 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

230 formations

Graham — 32.73°N, 98.64°WGraham — 33.27°N, 98.11°WGraham — 33.18°N, 98.12°WGraham — 33.17°N, 98.16°WGraham — 33.15°N, 98.16°WGraham — 33.05°N, 98.40°WGraham — 33.12°N, 98.30°WGraham — 33.14°N, 99.18°WColsterdale Marine Beds — 54.07°N, 1.82°WColsterdale Marine Beds — 54.17°N, 1.87°WColsterdale Marine Beds — 54.23°N, 2.42°WTriangle — 42.35°N, 75.89°WTriangle — 42.31°N, 75.60°WTriangle — 42.29°N, 75.27°WTriangle — 42.46°N, 75.47°WTriangle — 42.30°N, 75.51°WTriangle — 42.33°N, 75.77°WTriangle — 42.42°N, 75.86°WTriangle — 42.40°N, 75.77°WTriangle — 42.44°N, 76.03°WScotch Grove — 42.00°N, 91.00°WScotch Grove — 41.90°N, 90.60°WScotch Grove — 42.00°N, 90.50°WScotch Grove — 41.77°N, 91.13°WScotch Grove — 42.48°N, 90.87°WScotch Grove — 41.85°N, 90.18°WScotch Grove — 42.17°N, 91.10°WScotch Grove — 42.10°N, 91.28°WMcIvor — 34.08°S, 151.02°EMcIvor — 37.05°S, 144.83°EMcIvor — 36.77°S, 144.77°EMcIvor — 37.00°S, 144.00°ELuning — 38.87°N, 117.60°WLexington Limestone — 38.22°N, 84.86°WLexington Limestone — 37.84°N, 84.59°WKopanina — 49.96°N, 14.18°EKopanina — 49.95°N, 12.93°EKopanina — 49.52°N, 13.50°EKopanina — 50.08°N, 14.47°EKopanina — 49.93°N, 14.18°EKopanina — 50.00°N, 14.35°EGastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band — 53.65°N, 2.65°WGastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band — 53.58°N, 2.43°WGastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band — 53.70°N, 2.30°WGastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band — 53.72°N, 2.08°WKope — 39.01°N, 84.45°WKope — 39.01°N, 84.53°WKope — 38.79°N, 84.21°WKope — 38.68°N, 83.79°WBeul — 51.39°N, 7.87°EWild Cow — 34.75°N, 106.25°WWild Cow — 34.95°N, 106.30°WWaynesville — 39.58°N, 84.95°WWaynesville — 39.34°N, 84.95°WWaynesville — 39.48°N, 84.07°WWaynesville — 38.77°N, 85.36°WCorryville — 39.17°N, 84.12°WCorryville — 39.30°N, 84.40°WBangor Limestone — 34.52°N, 87.58°WBangor Limestone — 34.59°N, 87.63°WMount Ida — 36.77°S, 144.77°EMotol — 50.03°N, 14.32°EMotol — 49.77°N, 13.25°EMotol — 50.00°N, 14.22°EMotol — 50.00°N, 17.78°EMotol — 49.97°N, 14.13°EMartinsburg — 40.48°N, 76.53°WMartinsburg — 36.90°N, 81.53°WMartinsburg — 37.35°N, 80.81°WGrès verts helvétiques — 45.98°N, 6.69°EGrès verts helvétiques — 46.09°N, 6.76°EGrès verts helvétiques — 46.01°N, 6.35°EGrès verts helvétiques — 45.99°N, 6.58°EGlen Aubrey — 42.29°N, 75.92°WGlen Aubrey — 42.16°N, 75.83°WGlen Aubrey — 42.38°N, 75.58°WGlen Aubrey — 42.28°N, 75.70°WGlen Aubrey — 42.18°N, 75.90°WHopkinton — 43.00°N, 91.00°WHopkinton — 42.00°N, 91.00°WHopkinton — 42.50°N, 91.50°WBaird — 40.94°N, 122.27°WBaird — 40.88°N, 122.25°WLudlowville — 42.76°N, 78.65°WLudlowville — 42.91°N, 78.48°WCockhill Marine Band — 54.17°N, 1.87°WCockhill Marine Band — 54.00°N, 2.00°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Nautiloidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 206 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 65 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Nautiloidea and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Nautiloidea and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

2,097 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records at least 1,713 sites for Nautiloidea, and this reads 240 of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

215 references

Each of the 578 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. 203 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 Nautiloidea

Credit
J. Baecker
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itNautilida through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. de Blainville 1825