The Species of Nautilus

Abstract

During the past three centuries, a total of 11 species and 7 variants of living Nautilus have been proposed (Table I). It is notable that only one of these, N. belauensis, was based on live specimens; the rest were defined solely from drifted shells, the origins of which were either unknown or poorly documented by their authors. Considering this sparsity of data, it is remarkable that the species-level taxonomy of the genus recognized herein remains largely unchanged from that used by such masters as George Sowerby (1849). Nevertheless, there is still considerable confusion regarding the number, the names, and the validity of the variously named species, subspecies, and variants of Nautilus.