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An Ordovician nectocaridid hints at an endocochleate origin of Cephalopoda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 August 2019

Martin R. Smith Open the ORCID record for Martin R. Smith [Opens in a new window]
Martin R. Smith*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, U.K.
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Abstract

Nectocaridids are soft-bodied Cambrian organisms that have been controversially interpreted as primitive cephalopods, at odds with the long-held belief that these mollusks evolved from a shell-bearing ancestor. Here, I document a new nectocaridid from the Whetstone Gulf Formation, extending the group's range into the Late Ordovician. Nectocotis rusmithi n. gen. n. sp. possesses a robust internal element that resembles a non-mineralized phragmocone or gladius. Nectocaridids can be accommodated in the cephalopod total group if the earliest cephalopods (1) inherited a non-mineralized shell field from the ancestral mollusk; and (2) internalized this shell field. This evolutionary scenario would overturn the traditional ectocochleate, Nautilus-like reconstruction of the ancestral cephalopod, and indicate a trend towards increased metabolic efficiency through the course of Cambrian–Ordovician evolution.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/ed594200-37b9-4642-bd8f-4fb72dc544eb

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Journal of Paleontology , Volume 94 , Issue 1 , January 2020 , pp. 64 - 69
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Copyright © 2019, The Paleontological Society 

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