Get Our Extension

Argonaut (animal)

From Wikipedia, in a visual modern way
Argonauts
Temporal range: Miocene – Recent
Papierboot Argonauta 200705181139.jpg
Female Argonauta argo with its eggs bulging out of its damaged shell
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Order: Octopoda
Family: Argonautidae
Genus: Argonauta
Linnaeus, 1758
Type species
Argonauta argo
Linnaeus, 1758
Species

*Species status questionable.

Synonyms

The argonauts (genus Argonauta, the only extant genus in the family Argonautidae) are a group of pelagic octopuses. They are also called paper nautili, referring to the paper-thin eggcase that females secrete. This structure lacks the gas-filled chambers present in chambered nautilus shells and is not a true cephalopod shell, but rather an evolutionary innovation unique to the genus.[1] It is used as a brood chamber, and to trap surface air to maintain buoyancy. It was once speculated that argonauts did not manufacture their eggcases but utilized shells abandoned by other organisms, in the manner of hermit crabs. Experiments by pioneering marine biologist Jeanne Villepreux-Power in the early 19th century disproved this hypothesis, as Villepreux-Power successfully reared argonaut young and observed their shells' development.[2]

Argonauts are found in tropical and subtropical waters worldwide. They live in the open ocean, i.e. they are pelagic. Like most octopuses, they have a rounded body, eight limbs (arms) and no fins. However, unlike most octopuses, argonauts live close to the surface rather than on the seabed. Argonauta species are characterised by very large eyes and small webs between the tentacles. The funnel–mantle locking apparatus is a major diagnostic feature of this taxon. It consists of knob-like cartilages in the mantle and corresponding depressions in the funnel. Unlike the closely allied genera Ocythoe and Tremoctopus, Argonauta species lack water pores.

Of its names, "argonaut" means "sailor of the Argo".[3] "Paper nautilus" is derived from the Greek ναυτίλος nautílos, which literally means "sailor", as paper nautili were thought to use two of their arms as sails.[4] This is not the case, as argonauts swim by expelling water through their funnels.[5] The chambered nautilus was later named after the argonaut, but belongs to a different cephalopod order, Nautilida.

Discover more about Argonaut (animal) related topics

Genus

Genus

Genus is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus.E.g. Panthera leo (lion) and Panthera onca (jaguar) are two species within the genus Panthera. Panthera is a genus within the family Felidae.

Argonautidae

Argonautidae

The Argonautidae are a family of pelagic cephalopods that inhabit tropical and temperate oceans of the world. The family encompasses the modern paper nautiluses of the genus Argonauta along with several extinct genera of shelled octopods. Though argonauts are derived from benthic octopuses, they have evolved to depart the sea floor and live their life-cycle in the open seas.

Cephalopod

Cephalopod

A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head, and a set of arms or tentacles modified from the primitive molluscan foot. Fishers sometimes call cephalopods "inkfish", referring to their common ability to squirt ink. The study of cephalopods is a branch of malacology known as teuthology.

Buoyancy

Buoyancy

Buoyancy, or upthrust, is an upward force exerted by a fluid that opposes the weight of a partially or fully immersed object. In a column of fluid, pressure increases with depth as a result of the weight of the overlying fluid. Thus the pressure at the bottom of a column of fluid is greater than at the top of the column. Similarly, the pressure at the bottom of an object submerged in a fluid is greater than at the top of the object. The pressure difference results in a net upward force on the object. The magnitude of the force is proportional to the pressure difference, and is equivalent to the weight of the fluid that would otherwise occupy the submerged volume of the object, i.e. the displaced fluid.

Hermit crab

Hermit crab

Hermit crabs are anomuran decapod crustaceans of the superfamily Paguroidea that have adapted to occupy empty scavenged mollusc shells to protect their fragile exoskeletons. There are over 800 species of hermit crab, most of which possess an asymmetric abdomen concealed by a snug-fitting shell. Hermit crabs' soft (non-calcified) abdominal exoskeleton means they must occupy shelter produced by other organisms or risk being defenseless.

Jeanne Villepreux-Power

Jeanne Villepreux-Power

Jeanne Villepreux-Power, born Jeanne Villepreux, was a pioneering French marine biologist who in 1832 was the first person to create aquaria for experimenting with aquatic organisms. The English biologist Richard Owen referred to her as the "Mother of Aquariophily." She was the inventor of the aquarium and the systematic application of the aquarium to study marine life, which is still used today. In her time as a forefront cephalopods researcher, she proved that the Argonauta argo produces its own shells, as opposed to acquiring them. Villepreux-Power was also a noted dressmaker, author, and conservationist, as well as the first female member of the Catania Accademia Gioenia.

Cephalopod limb

Cephalopod limb

All cephalopods possess flexible limbs extending from their heads and surrounding their beaks. These appendages, which function as muscular hydrostats, have been variously termed arms, legs or tentacles.

Fin

Fin

A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. Fins are also used to increase surface areas for heat transfer purposes, or simply as ornamentation.

Cephalopod eye

Cephalopod eye

Cephalopods, as active marine predators, possess sensory organs specialized for use in aquatic conditions. They have a camera-type eye which consists of an iris, a circular lens, vitreous cavity, pigment cells, and photoreceptor cells that translate light from the light-sensitive retina into nerve signals which travel along the optic nerve to the brain. For the past 140 years, the camera-type cephalopod eye has been compared with the vertebrate eye as an example of convergent evolution, where both types of organisms have independently evolved the camera-eye trait and both share similar functionality. Contention exists on whether this is truly convergent evolution or parallel evolution. Unlike the vertebrate camera eye, the cephalopods' form as invaginations of the body surface, and consequently the cornea lies over the top of the eye as opposed to being a structural part of the eye. Unlike the vertebrate eye, a cephalopod eye is focused through movement, much like the lens of a camera or telescope, rather than changing shape as the lens in the human eye does. The eye is approximately spherical, as is the lens, which is fully internal.

Funnel–mantle locking apparatus

Funnel–mantle locking apparatus

The funnel–mantle locking apparatus is a structure found in many cephalopods that connects the mantle and hyponome (funnel) and restricts their movement relative to each other. It consists of two interlocking components: one located on the mantle and the other on the funnel. The apparatus may permit some anterior–posterior displacement or prevent movement altogether.

Cartilage

Cartilage

Cartilage is a resilient and smooth type of connective tissue. In tetrapods, it covers and protects the ends of long bones at the joints as articular cartilage, and is a structural component of many body parts including the rib cage, the neck and the bronchial tubes, and the intervertebral discs. In other taxa, such as chondrichthyans, but also in cyclostomes, it may constitute a much greater proportion of the skeleton. It is not as hard and rigid as bone, but it is much stiffer and much less flexible than muscle. The matrix of cartilage is made up of glycosaminoglycans, proteoglycans, collagen fibers and, sometimes, elastin.

Argo

Argo

In Greek mythology the Argo was a ship built with the help of the gods that Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcos to Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece. The ship has gone on to be used as a motif in a variety of sources beyond the original legend from books, films and more.

Description

Sexual dimorphism and reproduction

Argonauts exhibit extreme sexual dimorphism in size and lifespan. Females grow up to 10 cm and make shells up to 30 cm, while males rarely surpass 2 cm. The males only mate once in their short lifetime, whereas the females are iteroparous, capable of having offspring many times over the course of their lives. In addition, the females have been known since ancient times, while the males were only described in the late 19th century.

The males lack the dorsal tentacles used by the females to create their eggcases. The males use a modified arm, the hectocotylus, to transfer sperm to the female. For fertilization, the arm is inserted into the female's pallial cavity and then becomes detached from the male. The hectocotylus when found in females was originally described as a parasitic worm.[6]

Eggcase

Female argonauts produce a laterally-compressed calcareous eggcase in which they reside. This "shell" has a double keel fringed by two rows of alternating tubercles. The sides are ribbed with the centre either flat or having winged protrusions. The eggcase curiously resembles the shells of extinct ammonites. It is secreted by the tips of the female's two greatly expanded dorsal tentacles (third left arms) before egg laying. After she deposits her eggs in the floating eggcase, the female takes shelter in it, often retaining the male's detached hectocotylus. She is usually found with her head and tentacles protruding from the opening, but she retreats deeper inside if disturbed. These ornate curved white eggcases are occasionally found floating on the sea, sometimes with the female argonaut clinging to it. It is not made of aragonite as most other shells are, but of calcite, with a three-layered structure[7] and a higher proportion of magnesium carbonate (7%) than other cephalopod shells.[8]

The eggcase contains a bubble of air that the animal captures at the surface of the water and uses for buoyancy, similarly to other shelled cephalopods, although it does not have a chambered phragmocone.[7] Once thought to contribute to occasional mass strandings on beaches, the air bubble is under sophisticated control, evident from the behaviour of animals from which air has been removed under experimental diving conditions.[9][10][11]

Most other octopuses lay eggs in caves; Neale Monks and C. Phil Palmer speculate that, before ammonites died out during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, the argonauts may have evolved to use discarded ammonite shells for their egg laying, eventually becoming able to mend the shells and perhaps make their own shells.[12] However, this is uncertain and it is unknown whether this is the result of convergent evolution.

Argonauta argo is the largest species in the genus and also produces the largest eggcase, which may reach a length of 300 mm.[13][14] The smallest species is Argonauta bottgeri, with a maximum recorded size of 67 mm.[13][15]

Beak

Lower (left) and upper beaks of female Argonauta argo (63 mm ML) in lateral view 3D red cyan glasses are recommended to view this image correctly.
Lower (left) and upper beaks of female Argonauta argo (63 mm ML) in lateral view 3D red cyan glasses are recommended to view this image correctly.
Lower (left) and upper beaks of female Argonauta argo (63 mm ML) in lateral view
Lower (left) and upper beaks of female Argonauta argo (63 mm ML) in lateral view 3D red cyan glasses are recommended to view this image correctly. 3D red cyan glasses are recommended to view this image correctly.

The beaks of Argonauta species are distinctive, being characterised by a very small rostrum and a fold that runs to the lower edge or near the free corner. The rostrum is "pinched in" at the sides, making it much narrower than in other octopuses, with the exception of the closely allied monotypic genera Ocythoe and Vitreledonella. The jaw angle is curved and indistinct. Beaks have a sharp shoulder, which may or may not have posterior and anterior parts at different slopes. The hood lacks a notch and is very broad, flat, and low. The hood to crest ratio (f/g) is approximately 2–2.4. The lateral wall of the beak has no notch near the wide crest. Argonaut beaks are most similar to those of Ocythoe tuberculata and Vitreledonella richardi, but differ in "leaning back" to a greater degree than the former and having a more curved jaw angle than the latter.[15]

Discover more about Description related topics

Sexual dimorphism

Sexual dimorphism

Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most animals and some plants. Differences may include secondary sex characteristics, size, weight, color, markings, or behavioral or cognitive traits. Male–male reproductive competition has evolved a diverse array of sexually dimorphic traits. Aggressive utility traits such as “battle” teeth and blunt heads reinforced as battering rams are used as weapons in aggressive interactions between rivals. Passive displays such as ornamental feathering or song-calling have also evolved mainly through sexual selection. These differences may be subtle or exaggerated and may be subjected to sexual selection and natural selection. The opposite of dimorphism is monomorphism, when both biological sexes are phenotypically indistinguishable from each other.

Hectocotylus

Hectocotylus

A hectocotylus is one of the arms of male cephalopods that is specialized to store and transfer spermatophores to the female. Structurally, hectocotyli are muscular hydrostats. Depending on the species, the male may use it merely as a conduit to the female, analogously to a penis in other animals, or he may wrench it off and present it to the female.

Sperm

Sperm

Sperm is the male reproductive cell, or gamete, in anisogamous forms of sexual reproduction. Animals produce motile sperm with a tail known as a flagellum, which are known as spermatozoa, while some red algae and fungi produce non-motile sperm cells, known as spermatia. Flowering plants contain non-motile sperm inside pollen, while some more basal plants like ferns and some gymnosperms have motile sperm.

Parasitic worm

Parasitic worm

Parasitic worms, also known as helminths, are large macroparasites; adults can generally be seen with the naked eye. Many are intestinal worms that are soil-transmitted and infect the gastrointestinal tract. Other parasitic worms such as schistosomes reside in blood vessels.

Calcareous

Calcareous

Calcareous is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines.

Aragonite

Aragonite

Aragonite is a carbonate mineral, one of the three most common naturally occurring crystal forms of calcium carbonate, CaCO3. It is formed by biological and physical processes, including precipitation from marine and freshwater environments.

Calcite

Calcite

Calcite is a carbonate mineral and the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, based on scratch hardness comparison. Large calcite crystals are used in optical equipment, and limestone composed mostly of calcite has numerous uses.

Magnesium carbonate

Magnesium carbonate

Magnesium carbonate, MgCO3, is an inorganic salt that is a colourless or white solid. Several hydrated and basic forms of magnesium carbonate also exist as minerals.

Phragmocone

Phragmocone

The phragmocone is the chambered portion of the shell of a cephalopod. It is divided by septa into camerae.

Cave

Cave

A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word cave can refer to smaller openings such as sea caves, rock shelters, and grottos, that extend a relatively short distance into the rock and they are called exogene caves. Caves which extend further underground than the opening is wide are called endogene caves.

Neale Monks

Neale Monks

Neale Monks is a former palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London, where he worked primarily on heteromorph ammonites. He now writes about tropical fish and Macintosh computers.

C. Phil Palmer

C. Phil Palmer

C. Philip Palmer is a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London. He has worked extensively on molluscs of various types including scaphopods, bivalves and cephalopods.

Feeding and defense

Feeding mostly occurs during the day. Argonauts use tentacles to grab prey and drag it toward the mouth. It then bites the prey to inject it with venom from the salivary gland. They feed on small crustaceans, molluscs, jellyfish and salps. If the prey is shelled, the argonaut uses its radula to drill into the organism, then inject the toxin.

Argonauts are capable of altering their color. They can blend in with their surroundings to avoid predators. They also produce ink, which is ejected when the animal is being attacked. This ink paralyzes the olfaction of the attacker, providing time for the argonaut to escape. The female is also able to pull back the web covering of her shell, making a silvery flash, which may deter a predator from attacking.

Argonauts are preyed upon by tunas, billfishes, and dolphins. Shells and remains of argonauts have been recorded from the stomachs of Alepisaurus ferox and Coryphaena hippurus.[15]

Male argonauts have been observed residing inside salps, although little is known about this relationship.[16]

Discover more about Feeding and defense related topics

Venom

Venom

Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved venom apparatus, such as fangs or a stinger, in a process called envenomation. Venom is often distinguished from poison, which is a toxin that is passively delivered by being ingested, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin, and toxungen, which is actively transferred to the external surface of another animal via a physical delivery mechanism.

Salivary gland

Salivary gland

The salivary glands in mammals are exocrine glands that produce saliva through a system of ducts. Humans have three paired major salivary glands, as well as hundreds of minor salivary glands. Salivary glands can be classified as serous, mucous, or seromucous (mixed).

Crustacean

Crustacean

Crustaceans belong to the subphylum Crustacea,, and form a large, diverse group of arthropods including decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can be treated as a subphylum under the clade Mandibulata. It is now well accepted that the hexapods emerged deep in the Crustacean group, with the completed group referred to as Pancrustacea. Some crustaceans are more closely related to insects and the other hexapods than they are to certain other crustaceans.

Jellyfish

Jellyfish

Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella-shaped bells and trailing tentacles, although a few are anchored to the seabed by stalks rather than being mobile. The bell can pulsate to provide propulsion for highly efficient locomotion. The tentacles are armed with stinging cells and may be used to capture prey and defend against predators. Jellyfish have a complex life cycle; the medusa is normally the sexual phase, which produces planula larvae that disperse widely and enter a sedentary polyp phase before reaching sexual maturity.

Salp

Salp

A salp or salpa is a barrel-shaped, planktic tunicate. It moves by contracting, thereby pumping water through its gelatinous body, one of the most efficient examples of jet propulsion in the animal kingdom. The salp strains the pumped water through its internal feeding filters, feeding on phytoplankton.

Radula

Radula

The radula is an anatomical structure used by mollusks for feeding, sometimes compared to a tongue. It is a minutely toothed, chitinous ribbon, which is typically used for scraping or cutting food before the food enters the esophagus. The radula is unique to the mollusks, and is found in every class of mollusk except the bivalves, which instead use cilia, waving filaments that bring minute organisms to the mouth.

Cephalopod ink

Cephalopod ink

Cephalopod ink is a dark-coloured or luminous ink released into water by most species of cephalopod, usually as an escape mechanism. All cephalopods, with the exception of the Nautilidae and the Cirrina, are able to release ink to confuse predators.

Tuna

Tuna

A tuna is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae (mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bullet tuna up to the Atlantic bluefin tuna, which averages 2 m (6.6 ft) and is believed to live up to 50 years.

Billfish

Billfish

The term billfish refers to a group of saltwater predatory fish characterised by prominent pointed bills (rostra), and by their large size; some are longer than 4 m (13 ft). Extant billfish include sailfish and marlin, which make up the family Istiophoridae; and swordfish, sole member of the family Xiphiidae. They are often apex predators which feed on a wide variety of smaller fish, crustaceans and cephalopods. These two families are sometimes classified as belonging to the order Istiophoriformes, a group which originated around 71 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous, with the two families diverging around 15 million years ago in the Late Miocene. However, they are also classified as being closely related to the mackerels and tuna within the suborder Scombroidei of the order Perciformes. However, the 5th edition of the Fishes of the World does recognise the Istiophoriformes as a valid order, albeit including the Sphyraenidae, the barracudas.

Dolphin

Dolphin

A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae, Platanistidae, Iniidae, Pontoporiidae, and the extinct Lipotidae. There are 40 extant species named as dolphins.

Lancetfish

Lancetfish

Lancetfishes are large oceanic predatory fishes in the genus Alepisaurus in the monogeneric family Alepisauridae.

Mahi-mahi

Mahi-mahi

The mahi-mahi or common dolphinfish is a surface-dwelling ray-finned fish found in off-shore temperate, tropical, and subtropical waters worldwide. Also widely called dorado and dolphin, it is one of two members of the family Coryphaenidae, the other being the pompano dolphinfish. These fish are most commonly found in the waters around the Gulf of Mexico, Costa Rica, Hawaii and the Indian Ocean.

Classification

Fossilised eggcase of the extinct Miocene species Argonauta joanneus (lateral and keel views)
Fossilised eggcase of the extinct Miocene species Argonauta joanneus (lateral and keel views)
Eggcases of six extant Argonauta species
Eggcases of six extant Argonauta species

The genus Argonauta contains up to seven extant species. Several extinct species are also known.

The valid extant species are:[17]

While the following taxon is regarded as a nomen dubium:

With the species regarded as valid extinct taxa are

The extinct species Obinautilus awaensis was originally assigned to Argonauta, but has since been transferred to the genus Obinautilus.[18]

Dubious or uncertain taxa

The following taxa associated with the family Argonautidae are of uncertain taxonomic status:[19]

Binomial name and author citation Current systematic status Type locality Type repository
Argonauta arctica Fabricius, 1780 Undetermined Unresolved; ?Tullukaurfak, Greenland Unresolved
Argonauta bibula Röding, 1798 Undetermined Unresolved Unresolved
Argonauta compressa Blainville, 1826 Undetermined Mer de Indes Unresolved; [other Blainville types at MNHN] [not reported by Lu et al. (1995)]
Argonauta conradi Parkinson, 1856 Species of uncertain status [fide Robson (1932:200)] "New Nantucket, Pacific Ocean" Unresolved
Argonauta cornu Gmelin, 1791 Undetermined Unresolved Unresolved; LS?
Argonauta cymbium Linné, 1758 Non-cephalopod; foraminiferous shell [fide Von Martens (1867:103)
Argonauta fragilis Parkinson, 1856 Species of uncertain status [fide Robson (1932:200)] Not designated Unresolved
Argonauta geniculata Gould, 1852 Species of uncertain status [fide Robson (1932:200)] Near Sugarloaf Mountain, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Type not extant [fide Johnson (1964:32)]
Argonauta maxima Dall, 1871 Nomen nudum
Argonauta navicula Lightfoot, 1786 Species dubium [fide Rehder (1967:11)] Not designated Unresolved
Argonauta rotunda Perry, 1811 Non-cephalopod; Carcinaria sp. [fide Robson (1932:201)]
Argonauta rufa Owen, 1836 Incertae sedis [fide Robson (1932:181)] "Indian seas" ["South Pacific ocean" fide Owen (1842:114)] Unresolved; Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons? Holotype
Argonauta sulcata Lamarck, 1801 Nomen nudum
Argonauta tuberculata f. aurita Von Martens, 1867 Undetermined Unresolved ZMB
Argonauta tuberculata f. mutica Von Martens, 1867 Undetermined Coast of Brazil ZMB Holotype
Argonauta tuberculata f. obtusangula Von Martens, 1867 Undetermined Not designated ZMB Syntypes
Argonauta vitreus Gmelin, 1791 Undetermined Not designated Unresolved; LS?
Octopus (Ocythoe) raricyathus Blainville, 1826 Undetermined [Argonauta?] Not designated MNHN Holotype; specimen not extant [fide Lu et al. (1995:323)]
Ocythoe punctata Say, 1819 Argonauta sp. [fide Robson (1929d:215)] Atlantic Ocean near the North American coast (from stomach of dolphin) Unresolved; ANSP? Holotype [not traced by Spamer and Bogan (1992)]
Tremoctopus hirondellei Joubin, 1895 Argonauta or Ocythoe [fide Thomas (1977:386)] 44°28′56″N 46°48′15″W / 44.48222°N 46.80417°W / 44.48222; -46.80417 (Atlantic Ocean) MOM Holotype [station 151] [fide Belloc (1950:3)]

Discover more about Classification related topics

Argonauta joanneus

Argonauta joanneus

Argonauta joanneus is an extinct species of octopus assigned to the genus Argonauta. It was described in 1915 based on fossil material from the Middle Miocene of Austria. It was found in fine sandy clay.

Extinction

Extinction

Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point. Because a species' potential range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly "reappears" after a period of apparent absence.

Argonauta argo

Argonauta argo

Argonauta argo, also known as the greater argonaut, is a species of pelagic octopus belonging to the genus Argonauta. The Chinese name for this species translates as "white sea-horse's nest".

Argonauta hians

Argonauta hians

Argonauta hians, also known as the winged argonaut, muddy argonaut or brown paper nautilus, is a species of pelagic octopus. The common name comes from the grey to brown coloured shell. The Chinese name for this species translates as "Grey Sea-horse's Nest". The female of the species, like all argonauts, creates a paper-thin eggcase that coils around the octopus much like the way a nautilus lives in its shell. The eggcase is characterised by a wide keel that gives it a square appearance, few rounded tubercles along the keel, and less than 40 smooth ribs across the sides of the shell. The shell is usually approximately 80 mm in length, although it can exceed 120 mm in exceptional specimens; the world record size is 121.5 mm.

John Lightfoot (biologist)

John Lightfoot (biologist)

The Reverend John Lightfoot was an English parson-naturalist, spending much of his free time as a conchologist and botanist. He was a systematic and effective curator of the private museum of Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland. He is best known for his Flora Scotica which pioneered the scientific study of the plants and fungi of Scotland. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for his scientific work.He was an excellent scholar in many branches of literature; but after the study of his profession, he addicted himself chiefly to that of botany and conchyliologie [sic]. He excelled in both.

Argonauta nouryi

Argonauta nouryi

Argonauta nouryi, also known as Noury's argonaut, is a species of pelagic octopus. The female of the species, like all argonauts, creates a paper-thin eggcase that coils around the octopus much like the way a nautilus lives in its shell. The shell is usually approximately 80 mm in length, although it can exceed 90 mm in exceptional specimens; the world record size is 95.5 mm.

Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc

Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc

Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc was a French botanist, invertebrate zoologist, and entomologist.

Argonauta absyrtus

Argonauta absyrtus

†Argonauta absyrtus is an extinct species of octopus assigned to the genus Argonauta.

Argonauta itoigawai

Argonauta itoigawai

Argonauta itoigawai is an extinct species of octopus. It was described in 1983 based on fossil material from the Pliocene Senhata Formation in Bōsō Peninsula, Japan.

Argonauta oweri

Argonauta oweri

Argonauta oweri is an extinct species of argonautid octopus. It is known from the early Pliocene of New Zealand.

Argonauta sismondai

Argonauta sismondai

Argonauta sismondai is an extinct species of argonautid octopus. It was described from fossil remains dating to the Pliocene. In terms of eggcase morphology it is considered closest to the extant A. hians.

Argonauta tokunagai

Argonauta tokunagai

Argonauta tokunagai is an extinct species of octopus. It was described in 1913 based on fossil material from the Middle Miocene Huzina Formation of Japan.

In design

The argonaut was the inspiration for a number of classical and modern art and decorative forms including use on pottery and architectural elements. Some early examples are found in Bronze Age Minoan art from Crete.[20] A variation known as the double argonaut design was also found in Minoan jewelry.[21] This design was also transposed and adapted in both gold and glass in contemporary Mycenaean contexts, as seen both at Mycenae and the Tholos at Volo.[22]

Discover more about In design related topics

Minoan civilization

Minoan civilization

The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings date to c. 3500 BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000 BC, and then declining from c. 1450 BC until it ended around 1100 BC, during the early Greek Dark Ages, part of a wider bronze age collapse around the Mediterranean. It represents the first advanced civilization in Europe, leaving behind a number of massive building complexes, sophisticated art, and writing systems. Its economy benefited from a network of trade around much of the Mediterranean.

Crete

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica. Crete rests about 160 km (99 mi) south of the Greek mainland, and about 100 km (62 mi) southwest of Anatolia. Crete has an area of 8,450 km2 (3,260 sq mi) and a coastline of 1,046 km (650 mi). It bounds the southern border of the Aegean Sea, with the Sea of Crete to the north and the Libyan Sea to the south.

Mycenaean Greece

Mycenaean Greece

Mycenaean Greece was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland Greece with its palatial states, urban organization, works of art, and writing system. The Mycenaeans were mainland Greek peoples who were likely stimulated by their contact with insular Minoan Crete and other Mediterranean cultures to develop a more sophisticated sociopolitical culture of their own. The most prominent site was Mycenae, after which the culture of this era is named. Other centers of power that emerged included Pylos, Tiryns, Midea in the Peloponnese, Orchomenos, Thebes, Athens in Central Greece and Iolcos in Thessaly. Mycenaean settlements also appeared in Epirus, Macedonia, on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the south-west coast of Asia Minor, Cyprus, while Mycenaean-influenced settlements appeared in the Levant, and Italy.

Beehive tomb

Beehive tomb

A beehive tomb, also known as a tholos tomb, is a burial structure characterized by its false dome created by corbelling, the superposition of successively smaller rings of mudbricks or, more often, stones. The resulting structure resembles a beehive, hence the traditional English name.

In literature and etymology

Argonauts surrounding the Nautilus, in Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Argonauts surrounding the Nautilus, in Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Discover more about In literature and etymology related topics

Jules Verne

Jules Verne

Jules Gabriel Verne was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the Voyages extraordinaires, a series of bestselling adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1872). His novels, always well documented, are generally set in the second half of the 19th century, taking into account the technological advances of the time.

Marianne Moore

Marianne Moore

Marianne Craig Moore was an American modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit.

Gift from the Sea

Gift from the Sea

Gift from the Sea is a book by Anne Morrow Lindbergh first published in 1955.

The Swiss Family Robinson

The Swiss Family Robinson

The Swiss Family Robinson is a novel by Johann David Wyss, first published in 1812, about a Swiss family of immigrants whose ship en route to Port Jackson, Australia, goes off course and is shipwrecked in the East Indies. The ship's crew is lost, but the family and several domestic animals survive. They make their way to shore, where they build a settlement, undergoing several adventures before being rescued; some refuse rescue and remain on the island.

Arabidopsis thaliana

Arabidopsis thaliana

Arabidopsis thaliana, the thale cress, mouse-ear cress or arabidopsis, is a small flowering plant from the mustard family (Brassicaceae), native to Eurasia and Africa. Commonly found along the shoulders of roads and in disturbed land, it is generally considered a weed.

Argonaute

Argonaute

The Argonaute protein family, first discovered for its evolutionarily conserved stem cell function, plays a central role in RNA silencing processes as essential components of the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). RISC is responsible for the gene silencing phenomenon known as RNA interference (RNAi). Argonaute proteins bind different classes of small non-coding RNAs, including microRNAs (miRNAs), small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs). Small RNAs guide Argonaute proteins to their specific targets through sequence complementarity, which then leads to mRNA cleavage, translation inhibition, and/or the initiation of mRNA decay.

Source: "Argonaut (animal)", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 26th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argonaut_(animal).

Enjoying Wikiz?

Enjoying Wikiz?

Get our FREE extension now!

References
  1. ^ Naef, A. (1923). "Die Cephalopoden, Systematik". Fauna Flora Golf. Napoli (35) (in German). 1: 1–863.
  2. ^ Scales, Helen (2015). Spirals in Time: The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells. Bloomsbury.
  3. ^ "Word Origin and History for Argonaut". Online Etymology Dictionary. 2010. Retrieved 2017-11-15.
  4. ^ "Origin of nautilus". Dictionary.com Unabridged. 2017. Retrieved 2017-11-15.
  5. ^ Figuier, Louis (1869). The Ocean World: Being a Descriptive History of the Sea and Its Living Inhabitants. London: Cassell, Petter and Galpin. pp. 329.
  6. ^ Delle Chiaje, S. (1825). Memorie sulla storia e notomia degli animali (in Italian). Senza Vertebre del Regno di Napoli. I.
  7. ^ a b Nixon, M.; Young, J. Z. (2003). The Brains and Lives of Cephalopods. Oxford University Press.
  8. ^ Saul, L.; Stadum, C. (2005). "Fossil Argonauts (Mollusca: Cephalopoda: Octopodida) From Late Miocene Siltstones Of The Los Angeles Basin, California". Journal of Paleontology. 79 (3): 520–531. doi:10.1666/0022-3360(2005)0792.0.CO;2. ISSN 0022-3360. JSTOR 4095022. S2CID 131373540.
  9. ^ Finn, J. K. & Norman, M. D. The argonaut shell: gas-mediated buoyancy control in a pelagic octopus. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, published online May 19, 2010. doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.0155
  10. ^ "Museum Victoria 'Argonaut buoyancy' video" Archived 2012-07-13 at the Wayback Machine museumvictoria.com.au. URL accessed on 19 May 2010.
  11. ^ Pidcock, R. 2010. Ancient octopus mystery resolved. BBC News, May 19, 2010.
  12. ^ Monks, N.; Palmer, C. P. (2002). Ammonites. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C.
  13. ^ a b Pisor, D. L. (2005). Registry of World Record Size Shells (4th ed.). Snail's Pace Productions and ConchBooks. p. 12.
  14. ^ (in Russian) Nesis, K. N. 1982. Abridged key to the cephalopod mollusks of the world's ocean. Light and Food Industry Publishing House, Moscow, 385+ii pp. [Translated into English by B. S. Levitov, ed. by L. A. Burgess (1987), Cephalopods of the world. T. F. H. Publications, Neptune City, NJ, 351 pp.]
  15. ^ a b c Clarke, M. R. (1986). A Handbook for the Identification of Cephalopod Beaks. Oxford University Press. pp. 273 pp.
  16. ^ Banas, P. T.; D. E. Smith & D. C. Biggs (1982). "An association between a pelagic octopod, Argonauta sp. Linnaeus 1758, and aggregate salps". Fish. Bull. 80: 648–650.
  17. ^ Serge Gofas (2015). "Argonauta Linnaeus, 1758". World Register of Marine Species. Flanders Marine Institute. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  18. ^ Martill, D.M. & M.J. Barker (2006). A paper nautilus (Octopoda, Argonauta) from the Miocene Pakhna Formation of Cyprus. Palaeontology 49 (5): 1035-1041.
  19. ^ Sweeney, M. J. Taxa Associated with the Family Argonautidae Tryon, 1879. Tree of Life web project.
  20. ^ Eleni M. Konstantinidi, 2001, Jewellery Revealed in the Burial Contexts of the Greek Bronze Age, Hadrian Books, 322 pages ISBN 1-84171-165-9
  21. ^ C.Michael Hogan, Knossos Fieldnotes, The Modern Antiquarian (2007)
  22. ^ Higgins, R.H. 1961. Greek and Roman Jewellery, Butler & Tanner Ltd, pg. 79. Available at: https://books.google.com/books?id=vDTduIW0fgEC&q=greek+and+roman+jewellery
  23. ^ Johann David Wyss and Jenny H. Stickney, The Swiss Family Robinson, Ginn & Co., 1898, 364 pages.
External links

The content of this page is based on the Wikipedia article written by contributors..
The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence & the media files are available under their respective licenses; additional terms may apply.
By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use & Privacy Policy.
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization & is not affiliated to WikiZ.com.