MolluscaBase taxon details

Argonautidae Cantraine, 1841

11785  (urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:11785)

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marine, fresh, terrestrial
Not documented
Description The argonauts or paper nautiluses (a misnamer, use of which must be discouraged) are very abundant in tropical to...  
Description The argonauts or paper nautiluses (a misnamer, use of which must be discouraged) are very abundant in tropical to warm-temperate waters of the world. A large number of nominal species exists, but the group needs revision to verify the species, perhaps 6 to 8 in all. The family is monotypic. The "shell", actually in incubation chamber for the eggs, is popular among collectors because of its beauty, coloration, sculpture and fragility. The largest species, Argonauta argo, attains a maximum size of nearly 30 cm shell diameter, it enters fish markets in India and Japan when fortuitous oceanographic conditions cause mass aggregations so that large numbers can be captured. Normally it is non-schooling, solitary group.

Sexual dimorphism very marked, with adult females relatively large, up to 10 to 15 times larger than adult males; hectocotylus of males autotomous (self-amputating) into the egg mass that is attached inside a large, external, calcium carbonate egg case ("paper nautilus shell") in which the female also resides, holding on to the case with extremely broad webs on the dorsal arms (l); suckers biserial; web weakly developed; no water pores; no shell vestige. [details]
MolluscaBase eds. (2024). MolluscaBase. Argonautidae Cantraine, 1841. Accessed at: https://www.molluscabase.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=11785 on 2024-03-28
Date
action
by
2004-12-21 15:54:05Z
created
db_admin
2015-02-14 13:10:31Z
changed
2018-02-07 15:28:10Z
changed

Creative Commons License The webpage text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License


basis of record Finn J.K. (2013) Taxonomy and biology of the argonauts (Cephalopoda: Argonautidae) with particular reference to Australian material. <i>Molluscan Research</i> 33(3): 143-222. [details]   

additional source Finn J.K. (2014). Family Argonautidae. pp. 228-237, in P. Jereb, C.F.E. Roper, M.D. Norman & J.K. Finn eds. <em>Cephalopods of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of cephalopod species known to date.</em> Volume 3. Octopods and Vampire Squids. <em>FAO Species Catalogue for Fishery Purposes [Rome, FAO].</em> 4(3): 353 pp. 11 pls.
page(s): 228 [details]   

status source Taite, M.; Fernández-Álvarez, F.; Braid, H.; Bush, S.; Bolstad, K.; Drewery, J.; Mills, S.; Strugnell, J.; Vecchione, M.; Villanueva, R.; Voight, J.; Allcock, A. (2023). Genome skimming elucidates the evolutionary history of Octopoda. <em>Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.</em> 182: 107729., available online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2023.107729 [details]   

identification resource Lu, C.C. & Chung, W.S. (2017). <em>Guide to the cephalopods of Taiwan</em>. National Museum of Natural Science, Taichung, Taiwan, 560 pp. ISBN 978-986-05-2569-4.
page(s): 514 [details]   
 
 Present  Inaccurate  Introduced: alien  Containing type locality 
From other sources
Description The argonauts or paper nautiluses (a misnamer, use of which must be discouraged) are very abundant in tropical to warm-temperate waters of the world. A large number of nominal species exists, but the group needs revision to verify the species, perhaps 6 to 8 in all. The family is monotypic. The "shell", actually in incubation chamber for the eggs, is popular among collectors because of its beauty, coloration, sculpture and fragility. The largest species, Argonauta argo, attains a maximum size of nearly 30 cm shell diameter, it enters fish markets in India and Japan when fortuitous oceanographic conditions cause mass aggregations so that large numbers can be captured. Normally it is non-schooling, solitary group.

Sexual dimorphism very marked, with adult females relatively large, up to 10 to 15 times larger than adult males; hectocotylus of males autotomous (self-amputating) into the egg mass that is attached inside a large, external, calcium carbonate egg case ("paper nautilus shell") in which the female also resides, holding on to the case with extremely broad webs on the dorsal arms (l); suckers biserial; web weakly developed; no water pores; no shell vestige. [details]
LanguageName 
Chinese Chuán-Xiāo-Kē  [details]

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