Nautilus: The Biology and Paleobiology of a Living Fossil, Reprint with additions PDF
Preview Nautilus: The Biology and Paleobiology of a Living Fossil, Reprint with additions
Reprint with additions Aims and Scope Topics in Geobiology Book Series Topics in Geobiology series treats geobiology – the broad discipline that covers the history of life on Earth. The series aims for high quality, scholarly volumes of original research as well as broad reviews. Recent volumes have showcased a variety of organisms including cephalopods, corals, and rodents. They discuss the biology of these organisms-their ecology, phylogeny, and mode of life – and in addition, their fossil record – their distribution in time and space. Other volumes are more theme based such as predator-prey relationships, skeletal mineralization, paleobiogeography, and approaches to high resolution stratigraphy, that cover a broad range of organisms. One theme that is at the heart of the series is the interplay between the history of life and the changing environment. This is treated in skeletal mineralization and how such skeletons record environmental signals and animal-sediment relationships in the marine environment. The series editors also welcome any comments or suggestions for future volumes. Series Editors Neil H. Landman, Reprint with additions 123 Editors W. Bruce Saunders Bryn Mawr College Department of Geology Bryn Mawr PA 19010 USA This volume is dedicated to two individuals, born nearly a century apart, whose selfless dedication to Nautilus will provide inspiration for many others to follow Arthur A. Willey (1867-1942) Michael A. Weekley (1957-1984) Preface Few organisms have been as well known to the layman, but as poorly known to science, as the chambered nautilus. Although the shell was known by Aristotle, centuries elapsed before the living animal was first illustrated by Rumpf, in 1705, and its anatomy was not known until Richard Owen's dissection of a specimen captured by sailors in the New Hebrides, published in 1832. Although other accounts followed, virtually nothing was known of the habitat of Nautilus until 1895, when Arthur Willey, a young British zoologist, undertook a near-epic threeyear quest to decipher the embryology of Nautilus, as a clue to the evolutionary history of the cephalopods. Although his goal was not realized, Willey did obtain the first information on the animal's habits, summarized in a major monograph published in 1902, which is still a priceless source of information on Nautilus. With only a few exceptions, there was no further study of this enigmatic animal for almost 60 years. Despite its importance as the only representative of an entire subclass of mollusks, Nautilus appears to have been regarded as an inaccessible curiosity by most biologists. On the other hand, paleontologists seemed unwilling to venture into purely biological territory to study Nautilus directly. Nevertheless, the considerable paleontological importance accorded the organism is reflected by the detailed treatment of Nautilus in the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology (1964) by H. B. Stenzel. The hiatus in Nautilus research ended abruptly in the 1960s with the outstanding description of the buoyancy mechanism by Eric Denton and J. B. GilpinBrown, who had returned to one of Willey's haunts, the Loyalty Islands, armed with modern techniques. Their work seemed to reawaken both zoologists and paleontologists, for scores of articles were published by 1980 and 50 more have appeared in the last five years alone. Greatly revised and, in many cases, entirely new views of Nautilus are emerging as a result of new information available, from such diverse sources as telemetric tracking, shell radionuclides, deep-water remote camera sequences, analyses of shell strength, and physiological and aquarium studies. In 1983, at a Geological Society of America meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, the idea of assembling a book on Nautilus was developed among the "Friends of the Cephalopods," an informal group of paleontologists who had more than passing acquaintance with Nautilus. This volume is an outgrowth of that discussion. It constitutes a synthesis of existing information along with a wealth of new material. The mixture is about 50-50. For this, we are appreciatHre of those contributors who opted to wait patiently for the book to be published, when they justifiably could have resorted to publication in journals. vii viii Preface It is worth noting that although the great majority of living Nautilus workers contributed to this effort, a few are not represented. Eric Denton and J. B. GilpinBrown (Plymouth Marine Lab), Anna Bidder (Cambridge University), and Norine Haven (Hopkins Marine Station), each provided much-needed stimuli during the "early days" of modern Nautilus research, and their contributions stand as important milestones. In May, 1986, partly to celebrate completion of the book and partly as a means of joining two diverse and seemingly distantly connected guilds-paleontologists and zoologists-a gathering of nautilophiles was held in Philadelphia, followed by a Nautilus workshop at Bryn Mawr College. The present volume was the inspiration for these gatherings, not the reverse. Participants included the great majority of zoologists and paleontologists who work on Nautilus; that they assembled is a measure of the support and flexibility of the National Science Foundation and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In recognition of the fact that Nautilus research is a multidisciplinary effort, the royalties from this book are being donated to the Paleontological Society, publisher of the journal Paleobiology, which has helped foster an interdisciplinary approach to paleontological and biological problems. The broad span of the contributions presented here, like the international collaboration involved in their preparation, makes credits and acknowledgments difficult. Of greatest importance to the study of Nautilus has been the nearlimitless number of individuals who have shared our enthusiasm for this animal, most of whom, like us, have had nothing to gain but the satisfaction of curiosity. If Nautilus research is to continue, that list must continue to lengthen. A few special mentions are warranted: John Lance, former Director of the Paleontology and Stratigraphy Program, National Science Foundation, encouraged perseverence and assisted in finding means of support for research on a subject that was, according to some, not worthy of support. The Foundation's backing is reflected directly or indirectly in the content of many of the chapters. The National Geographic Society's Committee on Research and Exploration, Edwin W. Snider, Secretary, has been similarly courageous (and liberal) in its risk-taking attitude in funding Nautilus research. We thank a number of people who reviewed chapters in the book: John Baldwin (Monash University), John Chamberlain (Brooklyn College), Kirk Cochran (SUNY, Stony Brook), John Curry (University of York), Roger Hewitt (McMaster Ur;tiversity), William Kier (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), W. R. A. Muntz (Monash University), J. R. Redmond (Iowa State University), E. A. Shapiro (Georgia Geologic Survey), I. Strachan (St. Andrews University), Andrew Swan (University College of Swansea), Curt Teichert (University of Rochester), Roger D. K. Thomas (Franklin and Marshall College), Peter Ward (University of Washington), and Martin Wells (Cambridge University). We particularly thank Richard Davis (Cincinnati Museum of Natural History) for carefully checking organizational and grammatical details in each chapter. At Bryn Mawr College, Nancy Weinstein assembled the references and provided a wealth of assistance with manuscript processing; Mitra Fattahipour and Kevin Hefferan aided with drafting. At the American Museum of Natural History, the following people assisted in proofreading, collating, copying, sorting, drafting, and word-processing: Bev- Preface ix erly Heimberg, Susan Klofak, Peter Harries, Stephen Butler, and, especially, Stephanie Crooms. In the final stages of preparation, Douglas Jones (Florida State Museum) smoothed the way to Plenum Press, where Amelia McNamara, Eric Nernberg, and Susan Woolford took over with exemplary team efficiency. A few personal notes: Neil Landman especially thanks Niles Eldredge (American Museum of Natural History) for lending support and encouragement toward the completion of the book, the American Museum of Natural History for travel funds to Palau, John Arnold (University of Hawaii) and Bruce Carlson (Waikiki Aquarium) for their kind invitation to join their expedition to collect Nautilus in Palau, and Kirk and family. Bruce Saunders acknowledges Douglas Faulkner's efforts to set the stage in Palau for the long-term research program undertaken there in 1977 with Claude Spinosa, Larry Davis, and the late Michael Weekley. Ron Knight assisted immeasurably in developing the program in Papua New Guinea. The Micronesian Mariculture Demonstration Center in Palau and its directors U. P. McVey, M. Madranchar, W. M. Hamner, N. Idechong, F. Perron, and G. A. Heslinga) assisted the Nautilus research in ways too numerous to mention, and Bruce Carlson and the Waikiki Aquarium have been a bulwark of logistical support. The following individuals offered encouragement at many stages of the project: W. M. Furnish and Brian Glenister (University of Iowa), Ellen Grass (Quincy, Massachusetts), Paul Bond (Bryn Mawr College), R. Tucker Abbott (Melbourne, Florida), and Clyde Roper (Smithsonian Institution). Finally, the patience, support, and endurance of Victoria and Justin Saunders have permitted pursuit of an obsession that now has spanned a decade. W. Bruce Saunders Neil H. Landman Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania New York, New York . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxvi . . . . . . . . . . . xxxvi of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lx ix xi
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