Abstract
The chambered cephalopod shell has long been a subject of scientific investigation. However, a rudimentary understanding of the function of the shell in supporting external pressure was not achieved until the early 1960s. This functional issue is a relatively simple one: Did the chambered shell contain pressurized gas opposing the external water pressure, or alternatively did the shell structure itself support the load of the overlying column of water? Tests of the hypothesis of internal pressurized gas are also relatively simple to devise. Puncture of the shell while it is immersed in a fluid would appear to be sufficient to demonstrate whether there is a high internal gas pressure. If there were such pressure, a dramatic effusion of gas would occur when the shell was punctured and it should be readily observed. Indeed such a test was suggested in 1832 by the great anatomist Richard Owen (1832). The tests performed in the 1960s (Denton and Gilpin-Brown, 1961a-c, 1966; Denton et al., 1961, 1967) were similar in many respects to that suggested by Owen, and they demonstrated unequivocally that the shell does not contain elevated gas pressure. Thus the structure of the cephalopod shell does support the forces resulting from the overlying column of water (Fig. 1).
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Jacobs, D.K. (1992). The Support of Hydrostatic Load in Cephalopod Shells. In: Hecht, M.K., Wallace, B., Macintyre, R.J. (eds) Evolutionary Biology. Evolutionary Biology, vol 26. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3336-8_8
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