# Aturia
**Aturia** is an extinct genus of nautilid cephalopods that lived from the [Paleocene](https://www.edgepedia.org/paleocene) to the Miocene, established by Bronn in 1838 and placed in the family Aturiidae, a monotypic family erected by Campman in 1857.[1](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018299001509) According to Kummel's 1956 revision, the genus includes about 50 "species" found in Paleocene to Miocene strata, and its fossils occur in marine sediments on most continents.[1](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018299001509) • [2](https://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?lng=e&nrm=iso&pid=S0256-70242018000100171&script=sci_arttext&tlng=e)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Classification | Genus in order Nautilida, family Aturiidae (monotypic, Campman 1857); valid under WoRMS and the ICZN[3](https://portal.idigbio.org/portal/records/a7700840-a851-4de4-bc67-a49476cf5391) |
| Stratigraphic range | Paleocene to Miocene; some Miocene specimens occur reworked with early Pliocene foraminifers[2](https://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?lng=e&nrm=iso&pid=S0256-70242018000100171&script=sci_arttext&tlng=e) |
| Species count | About 50 "species" per Kummel (1956); Jung (1966) concluded only two prevail in the Miocene, *A. aturi* and *A. cubaensis*[1](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018299001509) • [2](https://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?lng=e&nrm=iso&pid=S0256-70242018000100171&script=sci_arttext&tlng=e) |
| Shell form | Smooth, very involute to occluded, discoidal, laterally flattened, ventrally rounded; sutural complexity index about 2.0, the maximal value known in nautilids[1](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018299001509) |
| Siphuncle | Dorsal or very close to the dorsum, unlike *Nautilus*, where it sits in the intermediate region[2](https://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?lng=e&nrm=iso&pid=S0256-70242018000100171&script=sci_arttext&tlng=e) |
| Habitat (isotope evidence) | Relatively deep, low-oxygen water at 240 to 330 m, bottom temperatures 13.3 to 17.9 °C, surface waters 20 to 22 °C; nectobenthic with daily vertical migrations[2](https://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?lng=e&nrm=iso&pid=S0256-70242018000100171&script=sci_arttext&tlng=e) |
## Shell and distinguishing features
The shell of *Aturia* is smooth, very involute to occluded, discoidal, laterally flattened and ventrally rounded. The suture line shows a broad flattened ventral saddle, a deep, narrow and often sharp lateral lobe, a broadly rounded lateral saddle, and a broad lobe on the umbilical wall; its index of sutural complexity is about 2.0, the maximal value known in nautilids.[1](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018299001509) Compared with *Nautilus* Linnaeus, 1758, the shell is less globular and more discoidal.[2](https://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?lng=e&nrm=iso&pid=S0256-70242018000100171&script=sci_arttext&tlng=e)
The position of the siphuncle, the tube that regulates buoyancy through the shell chambers, separates the genus from the modern nautilus: in *Aturia* it lies in a dorsal position or very close to the dorsum, whereas in *Nautilus* it occupies the intermediate region.[2](https://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?lng=e&nrm=iso&pid=S0256-70242018000100171&script=sci_arttext&tlng=e) The genus also has very long septal necks, which allow efficient decoupling of liquid from the chambers and give the shell the greatest post-mortem buoyancy and drift potential among nautiloid shells.[2](https://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?lng=e&nrm=iso&pid=S0256-70242018000100171&script=sci_arttext&tlng=e)
## Distribution and the drift problem
Fossils of *Aturia* have been found in [Paleogene](https://www.edgepedia.org/paleogene) to Miocene marine strata throughout the world, a pattern long described as cosmopolitan.[2](https://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?lng=e&nrm=iso&pid=S0256-70242018000100171&script=sci_arttext&tlng=e) Chirat's 2000 study argued that this apparent cosmopolitanism is largely the result of post-mortem transport by oceanic palaeocurrents: the shells float well, and drifted shells can be deposited far from where the animal lived, so nautiloid shells are often an inadequate source of palaeobiogeographic information.[1](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018299001509) • [2](https://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?lng=e&nrm=iso&pid=S0256-70242018000100171&script=sci_arttext&tlng=e) Chirat proposed that [Central America](https://www.edgepedia.org/central-america) and adjacent regions were where *Aturia cubaensis* lived, with shells drifting across the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and across the Pacific to Japan and the South Pacific, reaching southern South America.[2](https://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?lng=e&nrm=iso&pid=S0256-70242018000100171&script=sci_arttext&tlng=e)
Not every occurrence fits the drift model. Nielsen and colleagues suggested that the *Aturia cubaensis* finds in Eocene-[Oligocene](https://www.edgepedia.org/oligocene) deposits of [Tierra del Fuego](https://www.edgepedia.org/tierra-del-fuego) and the late Miocene of central and southern Chile reflect autochthonous populations favored by warmer seas, as shown by associated distinctly tropical gastropod genera.[2](https://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?lng=e&nrm=iso&pid=S0256-70242018000100171&script=sci_arttext&tlng=e) Isotopic analysis of an exceptional Lower Miocene accumulation in the Vienna Basin, part of the [Paratethys](https://www.edgepedia.org/paratethys), with more than 500 specimens in different ontogenetic stages together with jaw remains, identified it as a taphonomically autochthonous deposit and the most important such site recorded so far.[2](https://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?lng=e&nrm=iso&pid=S0256-70242018000100171&script=sci_arttext&tlng=e)
## Mode of life
The Vienna Basin isotope study concluded that *Aturia* inhabited relatively deep, low-oxygen water between 240 and 330 m, at temperatures of 13.3 to 17.9 °C, with surface waters between 20 and 22 °C, and that like *Nautilus* it had nectobenthic habits with daily vertical migrations.[2](https://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?lng=e&nrm=iso&pid=S0256-70242018000100171&script=sci_arttext&tlng=e) The genus is generally interpreted to have lived in tropical to subtropical regions by comparison with modern *Nautilus*.[4](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016699508001253) Its compressed, thin shell, complex suture line, and distinct reproductive strategy set it apart from other nautiloids in biogeographic analyses.[5](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jbi.14488)
## Fossil record and notable species
The genus evolved at the end of the [Cretaceous](https://www.edgepedia.org/cretaceous) and during the Cenozoic became one of the most diverse genera of externally shelled cephalopods, although Miocene finds are rare and scarce.[2](https://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?lng=e&nrm=iso&pid=S0256-70242018000100171&script=sci_arttext&tlng=e) Named species include *Aturia aturi* (de Basterot, 1825), the type species originally described as *Nautilus aturi*;[6](https://science.mnhn.fr/taxon/species/aturia/aturi) *Aturia cubaensis* (Lea, 1841), recorded from Cuba, Venezuela, Trinidad, Colombia, Costa Rica, Florida, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and Italy;[2](https://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?lng=e&nrm=iso&pid=S0256-70242018000100171&script=sci_arttext&tlng=e) *Aturia peruviana* Olsson, from the upper Eocene to lower Oligocene San Jacinto Formation of Colombia;[7](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/399657277_RECORDS_OF_ATURIA_PERUVIANA_NAUTILIDA_CEPHALOPODA_FROM_THE_SAN_JACINTO_FORMATION_UPPER_EOCENE_TO_LOWER_OLIGOCENE_OVEJAS_SUCRE_COLOMBIA) *Aturia angustata* from the Oligocene and Miocene of the northeastern Pacific;[8](https://research.nhm.org/pdfs/33578/33578.pdf) *Aturia alabamensis*, known from Eocene strata of Texas and Alabama and also reported from the Eocene of Cyrenaica, Libya;[9](https://www.mindat.org/taxon-3245726.html) • [10](https://field.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/209825) and *Aturia lotzi* from the Priabonian Langental *Turritella* Beds of the Sperrgebiet, Namibia.[11](https://www.mme.gov.na/files/publications/128_Mocke2018_Fossil%20collections%20of%20the%20Nations%20Earth%20Science%20Museum.pdf)
The genus persisted while other nautiloids declined. By Oligocene time, nautiloids other than *Aturia* had disappeared completely from the shores of the American continents, and from the late Oligocene onward nautiloids other than *Aturia* became extinct locally in regions where pinnipeds appeared.[5](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jbi.14488)
## References
1. [Chirat, R. (2000). The so-called 'cosmopolitan palaeobiogeographic distribution' of Tertiary Nautilida of the genus Aturia Bronn 1838: the result of post-mortem transport by oceanic palaeocurrents. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018299001509)
2. [Laurito, C. A. and Mora, M. J. (2018). Nuevo registro fósil de Aturia cubaensis (Lea, 1841) [Cephalopoda, Nautilidae] para el Mioceno inferior-medio de Costa Rica. Revista Geológica de América Central.](https://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?lng=e&nrm=iso&pid=S0256-70242018000100171&script=sci_arttext&tlng=e)
3. [Aturia specimen record ALMNH:Paleo:11401, iDigBio Portal](https://portal.idigbio.org/portal/records/a7700840-a851-4de4-bc67-a49476cf5391)
4. [Nielsen, S. N. et al. (2008). Palaeobiogeographical provenance, taphonomy, and mode of life of Aturia cubaensis from Cainozoic deposits of Chile. Geobios.](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016699508001253)
5. [Journal of Biogeography (Wiley), nautiloid biogeography study](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jbi.14488)
6. [Aturia aturi (de Basterot, 1825), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle](https://science.mnhn.fr/taxon/species/aturia/aturi)
7. [Records of Aturia peruviana from the San Jacinto Formation, Ovejas (Sucre, Colombia), ResearchGate](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/399657277_RECORDS_OF_ATURIA_PERUVIANA_NAUTILIDA_CEPHALOPODA_FROM_THE_SAN_JACINTO_FORMATION_UPPER_EOCENE_TO_LOWER_OLIGOCENE_OVEJAS_SUCRE_COLOMBIA)
8. [Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County research publication on northeastern Pacific Aturia](https://research.nhm.org/pdfs/33578/33578.pdf)
9. [Aturia, Mindat taxon page](https://www.mindat.org/taxon-3245726.html)
10. [Haas, O. and King, R. E. (1955). An Eocene Aturia from Cyrenaica. American Museum Novitates no. 1747.](https://field.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/209825)
11. [Mocke, H. (2018). Fossil collections of the Nation's Earth Science Museum, Namibia](https://www.mme.gov.na/files/publications/128_Mocke2018_Fossil%20collections%20of%20the%20Nations%20Earth%20Science%20Museum.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Life and health › Animals › Invertebrates › Molluscs › Cephalopods › Fossil cephalopods › Nautiloids & other fossil cephalopods › Extinct nautiloid genera*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 21, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license