25.05.2023

More nautilids survived the mass extinction at the end of the Triassic period

Science News
Germanonautilus warthi, picture: SMNS, G. Schweigert
Germanonautilus warthi, picture: SMNS, G. Schweigert

The end of the Triassic period, 201 million years ago, is considered one of the greatest mass extinction events in the history of the Earth. Among sea creatures, ammonites and nautilids were particularly affected. Until now, it was assumed that only a single genus of each of the two groups survived this period of crisis and that all subsequent diversity of species evolved from these two surviving lineages. This idea has now been revised due to the examination and re-evaluation of an extraordinary 185-million-year-old nautilid from the middle Early Jurassic of Behla near Donaueschingen, Germany, by Dr. Günter Schweigert.

Press release

Original publication