Breathing and Swimming Movements in a CaptiveNautilus

Abstract

Opportunities for measurements on livingNautilusare rare, and such studies as there have been on its locomotion tend to treat it as primitive compared with modern cephalopod molluscs. But the few measurements we were able to make on a healthy captiveNautilusliving for several months in the Monaco Aquarium reveal considerable sophistication in the control of swimming - particularly in the way the funnel operates - and that the system possesses neuromuscular properties that may be fundamental to cephalopods as a whole. The use of the shell for transmitting the pressure pulse and for the in- and out-movements of the body during jetting are, however, peculiar to this member of the group.