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Journal of Experimental Biology 137,175-189 (1988)
Published by Company of Biologists 1988

Response of Nautilus to Variation in Ambient Pressure

Michael Jordan ¹, John A. Chamberlain JR ², and Rebecca B. Chamberlain ³

¹ Institute of Marine Biomedical Research, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Wilmington, NC 28403, USA
² Department of Geology, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, Brooklyn, NY 11210, USA and Osborn Laboratories of Marine Sciences, New York Aquarium, New York Zoological Society, Brooklyn, NY 11224, USA
³ Metuchen, NJ 08840, USA

Juvenile Nautilus, tested in a high-pressure animal maintenance apparatus, are sensitive to increases in ambient hydrostatic pressure as small as lx10⁵Nm^-2 (= 1 atm = 100kPa). They respond to such pressure increases in a characteristic ‘depth alarm’ behaviour pattern, which consists primarily of rapid upward swimming. These activity bursts may serve to restore them to their original depth. The animals apparently continue this behaviour until fatigued. Pressure decrease elicits no obvious response. The pressure-sensing mechanism may be located within the statocyst, or possibly in the posterior mantle or siphuncle. The operation of. the latter two mechanisms involves tensional strain induced by the hydrostatic load in the outermost septum and wall of the siphuncular tube.

Key words: Nautilus, pressure sensitivity, depth alarm behaviour.

Accepted on January 12, 1988