Discontinuous, asymmetric and irregular colour patterns in Silurian oncocerids (Nautiloidea) with cyrtoconic shells

 

Authors: Turek V, Manda Š

Published in: Bulletin of Geosciences, volume 95, issue 3; pages: 333 - 367; Received 16 July 2019; Accepted in revised form 1 June 2020; Online 9 August 2020

Keywords: Multiceratia, Oncocerida, Bohemia, asymmetric colouration, ontogeny, protective function,

full text (PDF, 18.53 MB)

Export to RIS

 

Supplementary material

Erratum to Turek & Manda, 2020 (78 kB)

 

Abstract

The colour pattern is a conspicuous character of nautiloid shells. Better understanding to its evolution and possible function is limited by the rarity of preservation. The majority of colour patterns are preserved in demersal late Silurian breviconic oncocerids, while in other cephalopod orders and shell forms, it is limited or unknown. The colour pattern of late Silurian oncocerids (Oonoceratidae Flower, 1942 and Oocerinidae Teichert, 1939) possessing cyrtoconic and slightly curved shells is documented in nine species from Bohemia belonging to five genera. The cyrtocones Richardsonoceras Foerste, 1933 and Oonoceras Hyatt, 1884 exhibit slightly irregular oblique zig-zag patterns, which may be disrupted and may pass into irregular patches of dark pigment. By contrast, the colour pattern in Oocerina Foerste, 1926, possessing similar shell shape to Oonoceras, consists of narrow, transversal, slightly undulated bands. The short and very slightly curved shell of Chromatoceras gen. nov. displays bilaterally asymmetrical irregular bands or, as in the type species, irregular, asymmetrical, strongly discontinuous colouration. Distinct changes of patterning throughout ontogeny are documented herein in oncocerids, including narrowing of bands, irregular juvenile colouration passing into zig-zag bands and ventrally disappearing colouration in adult shell. Bilaterally asymmetric and irregular pattern, for the first time documented in nautiloids, appeared in probably more demersal cephalopods. The asymmetrical pattern exhibits high intraspecific variation unknown in other nautiloids. All studied oncocerids likely inhabited euphotic zone and the primary function of the colour patterns is camouflage.

References

Aberhan, M.N., Nurnberg, S. & Kiessling, W. 2012. Vision and the diversification of Phanerozoic marine invertebrates. Paleobiology 38, 187-204.View article

Agassiz, L. 1847. An introduction to the study of Natural history, in a series of lectures delivered in the hall of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. 58 pp. Greeley & McElrath, New York.

Arnold, J.M., Landman, N.H. & Mutvei, H. 2010. Development of the embryonic shell of Nautilus, 373-400. In Saunders, W.B. & Landman, N.H. (eds) Nautilus The Biology and Paleobiology of a Living Fossil. Plenum Press, New York & London.View article

Balashov, Z.G. 1964. On the structure and colour patterns of the shell wall in some Ordovician endoceratoids of Baltic. Voprosy paleontologii 4, 106-110. [in Russian]

Barrande, J. 1865-1877. Systeme silurien du Centre de la Bohéme, I. ere partie: Recherches Paléontologiques, vol. II, Classe de Mollusques, Ordre des Céphalopodes, 1865. ser. 6, pl. 1-107; 1866. ser. 7, pl. 108-244; 1867. ser. 1, 712 pp.; 1868. ser. 8, pl. 245-350; 1870. ser. 2, 266 pp., ser. 9, pl. 351-460; 1874. ser. 3, 804 pp.; 1877. ser. 4, 742 pp., ser. 5, 743 pp., supplement 1, 297 pp., supplement 2, pl. 461-544. Privately published, Prague & Paris.

Berry, W.E. 1928. Cephalopod adaptations - The record and its interpretation. Quarterly Review of Biology 3, 92-108.View article

Blake, J.F. 1882. A monograph of the British fossil Cephalopoda. Part I. Introduction and Silurian species. 248 pp. London.View article

Brazeau, U. & Friedman, M. 2015. The origin and early phylogenetic history of jawed vertebrates. Nature 520(7548), 490-497.View article

Brett, C.E., Boucot, A.J. & Jones, B. 1993. Absolute depths of Silurian benthic assemblages. Lethaia 26, 25-40.View article

Chapman, E.J. 1857. On the occurrence of the genus Cryptoceras in Silurian rocks. Canadian Journal, New series 2, 264-268.View article

Chlupáč, I., Jaeger, H. & Zikmundová, J. 1972. The Silurian-Devonian boundary in the Barrandian. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology 20, 104-174.

Collins, D. & Ward, P.D. 2010. Adolescent Growth and Maturity in Nautilus, 421-432. In Saunders, W.B. & Landman, N.H. (eds) Nautilus. The Biology and Paleobiology of a Living Fossil. Springer, Dordrecht, Heildeberg, London, New York.View article

Cott, H. 1940. Adaptive coloration in animals. 540 pp. Methuen Publishing, London.

Cowen, R., Gertman, R. & Wiggett, G. 1973. Camouflage patterns in Nautilus, and their implications for cephalopod paleobiology. Lethaea 6, 201-214.View article

Dzik, J. 1984. Phylogeny of the Nautiloidea. Paleontologia Polonica 45, 1-255.

Ferretti, A. & Kříž, J. 1995. Cephalopod limestone biofacies in the Silurian of the Prague Basin, Bohemia. Palaios 10, 240-253.View article

Flower, R.H. 1942. An arctic cephalopod faunule from the Cynthiana of Kentucky. Bulletins of American Paleontology 27, 1-41.

Flower, R.H. & Kummel, B. 1950. A classification of the Nautiloidea. Journal of Paleontology 24, 604-616.

Foerste, A.F. 1926. Actinosiphonate, Trochoceroid and other cephalopods. Denison University Bulletin, Journal of the Scientific Laboratories 21, 285-383.

Foerste, A.F. 1930a. The colour patterns in fossil cephalopods and brachiopods, with notes on gastropods and pelecypods. Contributions from the Museum of Palaeontology, Michigan 3, 109-150.

Foerste, A.F. 1930b. Port Byron and other Silurian cephalopods. Denison University Bulletin, Journal of the Scientific Laboratories 23, 1-110.

Foerste, A.F. 1933. Black River and other cephalopods from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ontario (Part 2). Bulletin Denison University, Journal of Scientific Laboratories 28, 1-136.

Foerste, A.F. & Savage, T.E. 1927. Ordovician and Silurian cephalopods of the Hudson Bay Area. Denison University Bulletin, Journal of the Scientific Laboratories 22, 1-107.

Frey, R.C. 1989. Paleoecology of a well-preserved nautiloid assemblage from a Late Ordovician shale unit, southwestern Ohio. Journal of Paleontology 63, 604-620.View article

Gunji, Y-P., Kusunoki, Y. & Ito, K. 1999. Pigmentation in molluscs: How does global synchronisation arise, 37-63. In Savazzi, E. (ed.) Functional morphology of the invertebrate skeleton. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, New York, Weinheim, Brisbane, Singapore, Toronto.

Hammer, Q. & Bucher, H. 1999. Reaction-diffusion processes: application to the morphogenesis of ammonoid ornamentation. Geobios 32, 841-852.View article

Havlíček, V. & Štorch, P. 1990. Silurian brachiopods and benthic communities in the Prague Basin (Czechoslovakia). Rozpravy Ústředního ústavu geologického 48, 1-275.

Havlíček, V. & Štorch, P. 1999. Silurian and Lochkovian Communities of the Prague Basin (Barrandian area, Czechoslovakia), 200-228. In Boucot, A.J. & Lawson, J.D. (eds) Final report, project Ecostratigraphy. Paleocommunities: A case study from the Silurian and Lower Devonian. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Hedström, H. 1917. Über die Gattung Phragmoceras in der Obersilurformation Gotlands. Sveriges Geologiska Undersokning 15, 1-35.

Hyatt, A. 1883-1884. Genera of fossil cephalopods. Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History 22, 273-338.

Hyatt, A. 1894. Phylogeny of an acquired characteristic. American Philosophical Society Proceedings 32, 349-647.View article

Hyatt, A. 1900. Cephalopoda, 502-592. In Zittel, K.A. & Eastman, C.R. (eds) Textbook of Palaeontology, Vol. 1. MacMillan, Boston.

Johnsen, S. 2005. The red and the black: bioluminescence and the colour of animals in the deep-sea. Integrative and Comparative Biology 45, 234-246.View article

King, A.H. 1999. A review of Volkhovian and Kundan (Arenig-Llanvirn) nautiloids from Sweden, 137-159. In Olórioz, F. & Rodríguez-Tovar, F.J. (eds) Advancing Research on Living and Fossil Cephalopods. Kluwer Academic, Plenum Publishers, New York.View article

Klug, C., Brühwiler, T., Korn, D., Schweigert, G., Brayard, A. & Tilstey, J. 2007. Ammonoid shell structures of primary organic composition. Palaeontology 50, 1463-1468.View article

Klug, C., Kröger, B., Kiessling, W., Mullins, G.L., Servais, T., Frýda, J., Korn, D. & Turner, S. 2010. The Devonian nekton revolution. Lethaia 43, 465-477.View article

Kobluk, R.D. & Hall, R.L. 1976. Preserved colour patterns in Ormoceras westonense from the Middle Ordovician of Quebec. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 13, 1479-1481.View article

Kobluk, D.R. & Mapes, R.H. 1989. The fossil record, function and possible origins of shell color Patterns in Paleozoic Marine invertebrates. Palaios 4, 63-85.View article

Koren, T.N., Lenz, A.C., Loydell, D.K., Melchin, M.J., Štorch, P. &Teller, L. 1996. Generalized graptolite zonal sequence defining Silurian time intervals for global paleogeographic studies. Lethaia 29, 59-60.View article

Kříž, J. 1992. Silurian Field Excursions: Prague Basin (Barrandian), Bohemia. National Museum of Wales, Geological Series 13, 1-110.

Kříž, J. 1998. Recurrent Silurian-lowest Devonian cephalopod limestones of Gondwanan Europe and Perunica, 183-198. In Landing, E. & Johnson, M.E. (eds) Silurian cycles: Linkages of dynamic stratigraphy with atmospheric, oceanic, and tectonic changes. New York State Museum Bulletin 491.

Kříž, J., Jaeger, H., Paris, F. & Schönlaub, H.P. 1986. Přídolí - the fourth subdivision of the Silurian. Jahrbuch der Geologischen Bundesanstalt 129, 291-360.

Kröger, B. 2011. Size matters - Analysis of shell repair scars in endocerid cephalopods. Fossil Record 14, 109-118.View article

Kröger, B & Aubrechtová, M. 2019. The cephalopods of the Kullsberg Limestone Formation, Upper Ordovician, central Sweden and the effects of reef diversification on cephalopod diversity. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 17, 961-995.View article

Kröger, B., Servais, T. & Zhang, Y. 2009. The origin and initial rise of pelagic cephalopods in the Ordovician. PLoS ONE 4(e7262), 1-24.View article

Manda, Š. & Turek, V. 2009a. Minute Silurian oncocerids with unusual colour pattern (Nautiloidea). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 54, 503-512.View article

Manda, Š. & Turek, V. 2009b A Silurian oncocerid with preserved colour pattern and muscle scars (Nautiloida). Bulletin of Geosciences 84, 755-766.View article

Manda, Š. & Turek, V. 2015. Colour patterns on Silurian orthocerid and pseudorthocerid conchs from Gotland - palaeoecological implications. Estonian Journal of Earth Sciences 64, 74-79.View article

Manda, Š. & Turek, V. 2018. Silurian tarphycerid Discoceras (Cephalopoda, Nautiloidea): Systematics, embryonic development and paleoecology. Journal of Paleontology 92, 412-431.View article

Mapes, R.H. & Davis, R.A. 1996. Color patterns in ammonoids, 103-127. In Landman, N. (ed.) Ammonoid Paleobiology. Topic in Geobiology 13. Plenum Press, New York.View article

Mapes, R.H. & Evans, T.S. 1995. The color pattern on a Cretaceous nautiloid from South Dakota. Journal of Paleontology 69, 785-765.View article

Mapes, R.H. & Larson, N.L. 2016. Ammonoid Color Patterns, 25-44. In Klug, C., Korn, D., De Baets, K., Kruta, I. & Mapes, R.H. (eds) Ammonoid Paleobiology: From Anatomy to Ecology. Springer, Dordrecht.View article

Mapes, R.H., Landman, N.H., Cochran, K., Goiran, C., Forges, B.R. de & Renfro, A. 2010. Early taphonomy and significance of naturally submerged Nautilus shells from the New Caledonia region. Palaios 25, 597-610.View article

Meinhard, H. 2009. The Algorithmic Beauty of Sea Shells. Fourt edition, with contribution and images by P. Prusinkiewicz and D. R. Fowler. 269 pp. Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg.View article

Miller, S.A. 1877. The American Palaeozoic Fossils: a catalogue of the genera and species with names of authors, dates, places of publication, groups of rocks in which found, and the etymology and signification of the words and an introduction devoted to the stratigraphical geology of the Palaeozoic rocks. 123 pp. Published privately, Cincinnati.View article

Miller, A.K. 1947. Tertiary Nautiloids of the Americas. Memoir of the Geological Society of America 23, 1-234.View article

Muntz, W.R.A. 1987. Visual behavior and visual sensitivity of Nautilus pompilius, 231-244. In Saunders, W.B. & Landman, N.H. (eds) Nautilus: the biology and paleobiology of a living fossil. Plenum, New York.View article

Niko, S., Mapes, R. & Yacobucci, M. 2009. Arcuatoceras, a New Genus of Nautiloid Cephalopods from the Early Carboniferous in the Midcontinent of North America. Paleontological Research 13, 319-325.View article

Packard, A. 1988. Visual tactics and evolutionary strategies, 89-103. In Wiedmann, J. & Kullmann, J. (eds) Cephalopods: present and past. Schweitzerbart?sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart.

Parsley, R.L., Lawson, M.H. & †Pojeta, J., Jr 2018. A practical and historical perspective on the how and why of whitening fossil specimens and casts as a precursor to their photography. Fossil Imprint 74(3-4), 237-244.View article

Peterman, D.J., Barton, C.C. & Yacobucci, M.M. 2019. The hydrostatics of Paleozoic ectocochleate cephalopods (Nautiloidea and Endoceratoidea) with implications for modes of life and early colonization of the pelgic zone. Palaeontologia Electronica 22.2.24A, 1-29.View article

Ruedemann, R. 1921. On color bands in Orthoceras. Bulletin New York State Museum 227, 63-130.

Ruedemann, R. 1925. Some Silurian (Ontarian) faunas of New York. Bulletin of the New York State Museum 265, 5-133.

Saunders, W.B. & Landman, N.H. (eds) 1987. Nautilus The Biology and Paleobiology of a Living Fossil. 594 pp. Plenum Press, New York & London.View article

Saunders, W.B. & Landman, N.H. (eds) 2010. Nautilus The Biology and Paleobiology of a Living Fossil. 594 pp. Plenum Press, New York & London.View article

Saunders, W.B. & Ward, P.D. 1987. Ecology, distribution, and population characteristics of Nautilus, 137-162. In Saunders, W.B. & Landman, N.H. (eds) 2010. Nautilus. The Biology and Paleobiology of a Living Fossil. Plenum Press, New York & London.View article

Saunders, W.B., Shimansky, V.N. & Amitrov, O.V. 1996. Clarification of Nautilus praepomilius Shimansky from the Late Eocene of Kazakhstan. Journal of Paleontology 70, 609-611.View article

Schuh, F. 1920. Farbreste auf der Schalenoberfläche eines Trocholites. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologischen Gesellschaft 72, 181-185.

Seilacher, A. & Gishlick, A.D. 2015. Morphodynamics. 531pp. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. Boca Raton, London, New York.View article

Slavík, L., Štorch, P., Manda, Š. & Frýda, J. 2014. Integrated stratigraphy of the Ludfordian in the Prague Synform. GFF 136, 238-242.View article

Stenzel, H.B. 1957. Nautilus, 1135-1142. In Hedgpeth, J.W. (ed.) Treatise on Marine Ecology and Paleoecology. Part 1. Memoir of the Geological Society of America 67.View article

Stenzel, H.B. 1964. Living Nautilus, 59-93. In Moore, R.C. (ed.) Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Mollusca 3. The University of Kansas Press, Lawrence.

Štorch, P., Manda, Š. & Loydell, D.K. 2014. The Early Ludfordian leintwardinensis graptolite Event and the Gorstian-Ludfordian boundary in Bohemia (Silurian, Czech Republic). Palaeontology 57, 1003-1043.View article

Stridsberg, S. 1985. Silurian oncocerid cephalopods from Gotland. Fossils and Strata 18, 1-65.

Swan, A.R.H. & Saunders, W.B. 2010. Morphological Variation in Nautilus from Papua New Guinea, 85-103. In Saunders, W.B. & Landman, N.H. (eds) Nautilus. The Biology and Paleobiology of a Living Fossil. Plenum Press, New York & London.View article

Sweet, W.C. 1964. Nautiloidea-Oncocerida, 277-319. In Moore, R.C. (ed.) Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part K, Mollusca 3, Cephalopoda. Geological Society of America and The University of Kansas Press, Boulder and Lawrence.

Sweet, W.C. & Leutze, W.P. 1956. A restudy of the Silurian nautiloid genus Priesteroceras Ruedemann. Journal of Paleontology 30, 1159-1165.

Teichert, C. 1939. Nautiloid Cephalopods from the Devonian of Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of West Australia 25, 103-121.

Teichert, C. 1964. Morphology of hard parts, 13-53. In Moore, R.C. (ed.) Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part K, Mollusca 3, Cephalopoda. The Geological Society of America, Lawrence.

Teichert, C. & Glenister, B.F. 1954. Early Ordovician cephalopod fauna from northwestern Australia. Bulletins of American Paleontology 35, 7-112.

Teichert, C. & Matsumoto, T. 1987. The Ancestry of the Genus Nautilus, 25-32. In Saunders, W.B. & Landman, N.H. (eds) Nautilus: Biology and Paleobiology of a Living Fossil. Plenum Press, New York & London.View article

Turek, V. 1990. Color patterns on Silurian and Devonian cephalopods of Central Bohemia, 81. In Abstracts 3rd Symposium of cephalopods: Present and past. Lyon.

Turek, V. 1992. Orthoceras Limestones and cephalopods of the Kopanina/Přídolí boundary beds (Silurian) in active part of the Kosov quarry near Beroun. Časopis Národního muzea, Řada přírodovědná 158, 108.

Turek, V. 2009. Colour patterns in Early Devonian cephalopods from the Barrandian Area: Taphonomy and taxonomy. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 54, 491-502.View article

Turek, V. & Manda, Š. 2010. Variability of colour pattern and shell malformations in Silurian nautiloid Peismoceras Hyatt, 1884. Journal of the National Museum, Natural History 179, 171-178.

Turek, V. & Manda, Š. 2011. Colour pattern polymorphism in Silurian nautiloid Phragmoceras Broderip, 1839. Bulletin of Geosciences 86, 91-105.View article

Vokáč, V. 1999. Trilobitová společenstva hraničního intervalu ludlow-přídolí (silur) v novém profilu v lomu Kosov u Berouna (pražská pánev, Čechy). Palaeontologia Bohemiae 5(9), 70-74.

Ward, P.D. 1987. The natural history of Nautilus. 267 pp. Allen & Unwin, Boston, London, Sydney, Wellington.

Ward, P.D., Dooley, F. & Barord, J.G. 2016. Nautilus: biology, systematics, and paleobiology as viewed from 2015. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology 135, 169-185.View article

Westermann, G.E.G. 1998. Life Habits of Nautiloids, 263-298. In Savazzi, E. (ed.) Functional Morphology of the Invertebrate Skeleton. John Wiley, London.

Williams, T.S. 2017. Molluscan shell colour. Biological reviews 92, 1039-1058.View article