The digestive tract of Nautilus pompilius (Cephalopoda, Tetrabranchiata): an X-ray analytical and computational tomography study on the living animal.
Using X-ray analytical studies and computational tomography, the position of the digestive tract of the tetrabranchiate cephalopod Nautilus pompilius L. was demonstrated in a living animal. For the first time, a detailed analysis of the rate of digestion and the duration of the different phases of a digestive cycle has been made using these in vivo methods. At 20 min after food intake, the food has entered the stomach, where it is reduced to small pieces; most is stored in the crop, which is enlarged to approximately four times its original size. The chyme reaches the midgut gland 3 h and the rectal loop 5 h after food intake. The time between food intake and elimination is 12 h. Thus, in Nautilus pompilius, digestion takes approximately the same time as described for nectobenthic sepioids and benthic octopods but is approximately 6 h longer than in loliginids, which have a pelagic mode of life. Furthermore, the three-dimensional structure of the digestive tract of a living Nautilus pompilius L. was demonstrated using computational tomography.
Westermann
Bettina
B
Institut für Allgemeine und Spezielle Zoologie, Bereich Entwicklungsbiologie, Stephanstrasse 24, D-35390 Giessen, Germany. Bettina.Westermann@chemie.bio.uni-giessen.de
Ruth
Peter
P
Litzlbauer
Horst Detlef
HD
Beck
Ingrid
I
Beuerlein
Knut
K
Schmidtberg
Henrike
H
Kaleta
Erhard F
EF
Schipp
Rudolf
R
D000818:Animals; D004063:Digestion; D004064:Digestive System / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D004068:Digestive System Physiological Phenomena; D004435:Eating; D008974:Mollusca / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed