Hitherto undetected pore-canal network in the shell wall of the Ordovician Orthoceras from Baltoscandia (Cephalopoda: orthoceratida, calciosiphonata)

ABSTRACT The structure of the shell wall in the Ordovician Orthoceras differs from that in the extant Nautilus. It consists of two equal thick layers: an outer probably nacreous layer and an inner prismatic layer. The two layers are separated from each other by a thin intermediate sub-layer that is rich in organic substance and has indistinct boundaries. The intermediate sub-layer and the inner prismatic layer contain a hitherto undetected pore-canal network that consists of vertical and horizontal canals. Horizontal canals are arranged in a single layer in the outermost part of the intermediate sub-layer. The vertical canals are arranged in parallel rows, and the canals in each row open into one of the horizontal canals. The canals have thin walls of calcified organic fibres. The walls are preserved in the intermediate sub-layer, whereas in the inner prismatic layer, they are partially dissolved. The canal network is absent in the shell wall of the extant Nautilus, but the horizontal canals occur in the shell wall of the Carboniferous orthocerid-like coleoid Mitorthoceras and the bactritid-like coleoid Shimanskya. Thus, the pore-canal network had an important, still unknown, function for the animal, and it existed, without changes, at least 150 ma.