Abstract
Information about behavior and habitat depths of Nautilus and Allonautilus species, the last remaining nautiloid cephalopod genera, is relevant both to paleobiologists trying to interpret the lives of extinct chambered cephalopods as well as to ecologists seeking to better understand the food webs of the Mesophotic Zone (200–800 m), fore-reef slope communities of the tropical Indopacific where these archaic animals live. One long-standing question is whether the extant nautiloid species live in deeper water than the many extinct species; a second is whether there are habitation depth differences of adult nautiloids compared to juveniles - either now or in the past. Using shell-mounted acoustic transmitters on seven different species in the two extant genera, and oxygen isotope shell thermometry on these same species as well as from fossils of 18 extinct fossil nautiloid species, we found regular, diurnal migration in only one species of each extant genus. Mature individuals in all tracked species of both genera were found to inhabit significantly shallower (and warmer) depths (~ 200 m) than the immature nautiluses and allonautiluses of the same populations (~ 350–400 m). Extinct nautiloid genera showed significantly warmer shell growth temperatures, with the single exception of Eocene through Miocene-aged species of the ammonoid-like genus Aturia, although diagenesis from not only ancient, but modern carbonates cannot be ruled out.
Data availability
All data used in this manuscript are present either in Figures, Tables, or in Supplemental Tables. The raw data (output from Vemco VR100 receiver) were converted to ten to 30 min intervals and presented in figures. The raw data output from the Vemco receivers used in this study are available upon request, but are very large in size.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the peoples of the various sites where we conducted this research, including Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Australia, the Philippines, and Vanuatu for allowing us to conduct the necessary field work. We thank the CITES officers for Papua New Guinea and Fiji for permits that allowed us to remove shell and tissue material in 2022 and 2023.
Funding
Funding for this work came from the National Science Foundation, Paleoclimates of Greenhouse worlds: Cretaceous of Antarctica (2014–2018, to Ward), the United States Fish and Wildlife, 2011–2013, to Ward; Ecological position of Nautilus in Fiji. National Marine Fisheries, (1/12–12/13) Population structure of Nautilus in Samoa, NOAA (6/12 − 7/14); Conservation Biology of deep sea fisheries in the Philippine Islands, Tiffany Foundation (1/13 − 7/14).
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Every author on this manuscript except Schauer and Steig did stints in boats either tracking or completing nautilus trapping to get the specimens to be tracked or analyzed. The main text was written in collaboration with all authors. Stable isotope analyses were conducted by Veloso under the supervision of Schauer and Steig. Figure 8 was drafted by Klug. Greg Barord took the hardest shifts in the Philippines, usually sitting in the small boat from 2AM to 7AM. Andrew Dunstan showed us how this work should be done, and invented the technology allowing heavy transmitters to be held in the buoyancy compensating, streamlined “saddles” of his design, to be successfully attached to Nautilus and Allonautilus shells of even the small species, and following his lead we have combined to produce this work, which for us began forty three years ago.
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Ward, P.D., Barord, G., Carlson, B. et al. Comparative habits and habitat in extant and extinct nautiloid cephalopods from acoustic telemetry and stable oxygen isotope analyses. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-36623-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-36623-x
