Cephalopod body size and macroecology through deep time
Abstract As actively swimming predators, cephalopods have played a key role regulating and engineering marine ecosystems for more than 500 million years and continue to do so. For the first time, we portray fluctuations of cephalopod body size including species from the Cambrian to today. For compar...
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| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-08-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-13940-1 |
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| author | Christian Klug Dirk Fuchs Alexander Pohle Dieter Korn Kenneth De Baets René Hoffmann David Ware Peter D. Ward |
| author_facet | Christian Klug Dirk Fuchs Alexander Pohle Dieter Korn Kenneth De Baets René Hoffmann David Ware Peter D. Ward |
| author_sort | Christian Klug |
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| description | Abstract As actively swimming predators, cephalopods have played a key role regulating and engineering marine ecosystems for more than 500 million years and continue to do so. For the first time, we portray fluctuations of cephalopod body size including species from the Cambrian to today. For comparability, we determined the maximum body volumes of each species using various proxies, because classical measures like mantle length cannot be applied homologously to all groups. We separately examined Cephalopoda with orthoconic conchs (without ammonoids and coleoids), Nautilida, Ammonoida (without heteromorphs), and Neocoleoida (squids, octopuses and their ancestors). The long-term trajectories of these groups differ in their overall trends. Each of these groups reacted in other ways to the mass extinctions. All groups except the nautilids evolved species exceeding one meter in size, which belong to the marine megafauna. Nautilids and orthocones share a threshold volume of about 100 litres, while in ammonoids and neocoleoids, the limit lies closer to 500 litres. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-6dfdfa1a1bd548aa828fa2277247628d |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-08-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj-art-6dfdfa1a1bd548aa828fa2277247628d2025-08-24T11:22:31ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-08-0115111610.1038/s41598-025-13940-1Cephalopod body size and macroecology through deep timeChristian Klug0Dirk Fuchs1Alexander Pohle2Dieter Korn3Kenneth De Baets4René Hoffmann5David Ware6Peter D. Ward7Paläontologisches Institut und MuseumBayerische Staatssammlung Für Paläontologie Und GeologieInstitut für Geowissenschaften, Ruhr-Universität BochumMuseum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and BiodiversityInstitute of Evolutionary Biology, Faculty of Biology, University of WarsawInstitut für Geowissenschaften, Ruhr-Universität BochumMuseum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and BiodiversityDepartment of Biology, University of WashingtonAbstract As actively swimming predators, cephalopods have played a key role regulating and engineering marine ecosystems for more than 500 million years and continue to do so. For the first time, we portray fluctuations of cephalopod body size including species from the Cambrian to today. For comparability, we determined the maximum body volumes of each species using various proxies, because classical measures like mantle length cannot be applied homologously to all groups. We separately examined Cephalopoda with orthoconic conchs (without ammonoids and coleoids), Nautilida, Ammonoida (without heteromorphs), and Neocoleoida (squids, octopuses and their ancestors). The long-term trajectories of these groups differ in their overall trends. Each of these groups reacted in other ways to the mass extinctions. All groups except the nautilids evolved species exceeding one meter in size, which belong to the marine megafauna. Nautilids and orthocones share a threshold volume of about 100 litres, while in ammonoids and neocoleoids, the limit lies closer to 500 litres.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-13940-1AmmonoidaNeocoleoideaNautilidaPhanerozoicGigantismMacroecology |
| spellingShingle | Christian Klug Dirk Fuchs Alexander Pohle Dieter Korn Kenneth De Baets René Hoffmann David Ware Peter D. Ward Cephalopod body size and macroecology through deep time Scientific Reports Ammonoida Neocoleoidea Nautilida Phanerozoic Gigantism Macroecology |
| title | Cephalopod body size and macroecology through deep time |
| title_full | Cephalopod body size and macroecology through deep time |
| title_fullStr | Cephalopod body size and macroecology through deep time |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cephalopod body size and macroecology through deep time |
| title_short | Cephalopod body size and macroecology through deep time |
| title_sort | cephalopod body size and macroecology through deep time |
| topic | Ammonoida Neocoleoidea Nautilida Phanerozoic Gigantism Macroecology |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-13940-1 |
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