Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T10:50:59.406Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the buoyancy of Spirula spirula

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

E. J. Denton ,
J. B. Gilpin-Brown  and
J. V. Howarth
E. J. Denton
Affiliation:
The Plymouth Laboratory and the Department of Zoology, the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
J. B. Gilpin-Brown*
Affiliation:
The Plymouth Laboratory and the Department of Zoology, the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
J. V. Howarth
Affiliation:
The Plymouth Laboratory and the Department of Zoology, the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
*
*Present address: The Laboratory, Citadel Hill, Plymouth.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Spirula spirula (L.) when freshly caught was found to be close to neutral buoyancy. The pressure of gas within the chambers of the shell was always less than atmospheric, being very low in the newest chamber of a growing animal and rising to a value a little below atmospheric in the older chambers. A chamber which was being formed was completely full of liquid. The only connexion between the liquid in a chamber and the living siphuncle is through a small permeable region of the siphuncular wall which lies at the top of a newly formed chamber. These results support the hypothesis that Spirula, Nautilus and Sepia all regulate their buoyancy in the same way. The shell is sufficiently strong to withstand the hydrostatic pressure of the sea at the depths at which the animal lives.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , February 1967 , pp. 181 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1967

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agassiz, A., 1879. On the dredging operation carried on from December, 1878 to March 10, 1879 by the United States Coast Survey Steamer ‘Blake’. Bull. Mus. comp. Zool. Harv., Vol. 5.Google Scholar
Angas, G. F., 1865. On the marine molluscan fauna of the province of South Australia, with a list of all the species known…etc. Proc. zool. Soc. Lond., 1865, pp. 155–90.Google Scholar
Appellöf, A., 1893. Die Schalen von Sepia, Spirula and Nautilus. K. svenska Vetensk Akad. Handl., Bd. 25, No. 7, 106 pp.Google Scholar
Barker, P. H. & Kibblewhite, A. C., 1965. Physical oceanographic data from the Tui Cruise, 1962. N.Z. Jl Sci., Vol. 8, pp. 604–34.Google Scholar
Bruun, A. F., 1943. The biology of Spirula spirula (L.). Dana Rep., Vol. 4, No. 24, pp. 1–46.Google Scholar
Briton, A. F., 1955. New light on the biology of Spirula, a mesopelagic cephalopod. Essays on the Natural Sciences in Honor of Captain Allan Hancock, pp. 61–72. Los Angeles: University of Southern California Press.Google Scholar
Chun, C., 1913. Cephalopoda from the ‘Michael Sars’ North Atlantic Deep-Sea Expedition 1910. Rep. sclent. Results Michael Sars N. Atlant. deep Sea Exped., Vol. 3, pp. 1–21.Google Scholar
Chun, C., 1915. Die Cephalopoden; Myopsida. Wiss. Ergebn. dt. atlant. Exped. Valdivia, Bd. 18, 552 pp.Google Scholar
Colman, J. S., 1954. The ‘Rosaura’ Expedition 1937–1938. Part 1. Gear, Narrative and Station List. Bull. Br. Mus. nat. Hist. Ser. Zool., Vol. 2, pp. 119–30.Google Scholar
Defant, A., 1961. Physical Oceanography, Vol. 1, 729 pp. London: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Denton, E. J., 1961. The buoyancy offish and cephalopods. Progr. Biophys. biophys. Chem., Vol. 11, pp. 177–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denton, E. J. & Gilpin-Brown, J. B., 1961 a. The buoyancy of the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis (L.). J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 41, pp. 319–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denton, E. J. & Gilpin-Brown, J. B., 1961 b. The effect of light on the buoyancy of the cuttlefish. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 41, pp. 343–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denton, E. J. & Gilpin-Brown, J. B., 1961 c. The distribution of gas and liquid within the cuttlebone. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 41, pp. 365–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denton, E. J. & Gilpin-Brown, J. B., 1966. On the buoyancy of the pearly Nautilus. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 46, pp. 723–59.Google Scholar
Denton, E. J., Gilpin-Brown, J. B. & Howarth, J. V., 1961. The osmotic mechanism of the cuttlebone. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 41, pp. 351–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, J. E., 1845. On the animal of Spirula. Ann. Mag. nat. Hist., Vol. 15, pp. 257–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huxley, T. H. & Pelseneer, P., 1895. Report on the specimen of the genus Spirula collected by H.M.S. ‘Challenger’. 'Challenger’ Rep., Vol. 2, Appendix (Zoology Part 83). 32 pp.Google Scholar
Lane, F. W., 1957. Kingdom of the Octopus. 287 pp. London: Jarrolds.Google Scholar
Mutvei, H., 1964. On the shells of Nautilus and Spirula, with notes on the shell secretion in non-cephalopod molluscs. Ark. Zool., Vol. 16, pp. 221–78.Google Scholar
Owen, R., 1879. Supplementary observations on the anatomy of Spirula australis, Lamarck. Ann. Mag. nat. Hist., Ser. 5, Vol. 3, pp. 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, J., 1922. Live specimens of Spirula. Nature, Lond., Vol. 110, pp. 788–90.Google Scholar
Tait, R. I., Barker, P. H. & Gilpin-Brown, J, B., 1965. ‘Tui’ oceanographic cruise (Auckland to Norfolk Island and Raoul Island) 1962. N.Z. Jl Set., Vol. 8, pp. 583–603.Google Scholar