Parasites of Ammonoids

Traumatic events in the life of the deep-sea cephalopod mollusc, the coleoid Spirula spirula

“…the gills, mantle cavity or digestive tract (McLean et al 1987;Hochberg 1990;Hanlon and Forsythe 1990;Pascual et al 1996Pascual et al , 2007Gestal et al 1999;Gonzalez et al 2003; Castellanos-Martínez and Gestal 2013) but none were reported to infest the mineralized shell. For Nautilus only copepods have been described that do not enter between the shell and mantle (De Baets et al 2015b), and from a Nautilus in captivity, a helminth (Nematoda) has been reported by Barord et al (2012) neither can explain the observed pattern. Given that cephalopods are a key trophic element in modern and ancient marine communities (Clarke 1996), it is no surprise that Hochberg (1990) documented 200 endoparasitic species in cephalopods with macroparasites, e.g., nematodes, copepods, and isopods.…”

“…Although difficult to detect, because parasites are often very small and soft bodied, it is even more complicated to identify the parasite after its soft body has decomposed (Conway Morris 1981;De Baets et al 2015b;Leung 2017). This largely depends on the fact that different parasites can lead to similar reactions of the host due to convergence in the evolution of host exploitation strategies (Littlewood and Donovan 2003;De Baets et al 2015b;Leung 2017).…”

“…predator-preyrelationships, parasitism, or epizoism, while autecology refers to the interactions of an organism with its environment. These specific types of interactions will result in characteristic reactions of the involved organisms and can lead to typical anomalous growth patterns (e.g., Conway Morris 1981, Halstead 1990, Keupp 2012, De Baets et al 2015b, Hoffmann and Keupp 2015. In this context, it is important to note that the resulting degree of anomalous growth always ranges within specific tolerance limits and allows estimating the functional tolerance of distinct morphological traits.…”

“…The majority of pathological and palaeo-pathological studies focus on vertebrates (e.g., Tasnadi-Kubacska 1962;Pinhasi and Mays 2007;Grauer 2012). In the past decades, modern and fossil cephalopods with pathological or teratological deformations have received increasing attention (Hölder 1956;Guex 1967;Kabanov 1967;Keupp 1973Keupp , 2000Keupp , 2002Keupp , 2012Ward and Boletzky 1984;Boletzky and Overath 1989;Hochberg 1990;Hanlon and Forsythe 1990;Hengsbach 1996;Pascual et al 1996Pascual et al , 2007Gestal et al 1999;Kröger 2000;Bello and Paparella 2003;González et al 2003;Klug 2007;Castellanos-Martínez and Gestal 2013; Keupp and Fuchs 2014, De Baets et al 2015b, Hoffmann et al 2018 Fiorito 2018).…”

Body size of orthoconic cephalopods from the late Silurian and Devonian of the Anti‐Atlas (Morocco)

“…), but these specimens cannot always unambiguously be distinguished from normally grown large adult individuals (De Baets et al . ; Klug et al . ).…”