Cephalopods Present and Past: New Insights and Fresh Perspectives [electronic resource] / edited by Neil H. Landman, Richard Arnold Davis, Royal H. Mapes.

Phylogeny and Systematics -- Phylogenetic Practices Among Scholars of Fossil Cephalopods, with Special Reference to Cladistics -- Patterns of Embryonic Development in Early to Middle Devonian Ammonoids -- Conch Form Analysis, Variability, Morphological Disparity, and Mode of Life of the Frasnian (Late Devonian) Ammonoid Manticoceras from Coumiac (Montagne Noire, France) -- GONIAT - The Current State of the Paleontological Database System on Paleozoic Ammonoids -- Ornamental Polymorphism in Placenticeras kaffrarium (Ammonoidea; Upper Cretaceous of India): Evolutionary Implications -- A Late Carboniferous Coleoid Cephalopod from the Mazon Creek Lagerstätte (USA), with a Radula, Arm Hooks, Mantle Tissues, and Ink -- On the Species Status of Spirula spirula (Linné, 1758) (Cephalopoda): A New Approach Based on Divergence of Amino Acid Sequences Between the Canaries and New Caledonia -- Morphology of Soft and Hard Tissues -- Understanding Ammonoid Sutures: New Insight into the Dynamic Evolution of Paleozoic Suture Morpholog -- Cameral Membranes in Carboniferous and Permian Goniatites: Description and Relationship to Pseudosutures -- Soft-tissue Attachment of Middle Triassic Ceratitida from Germany -- The Preservation of Body Tissues, Shell, and Mandibles in the Ceratitid Ammonoid Austrotrachyceras (Late Triassic), Austria -- Connecting Ring Ultrastructure in the Jurassic Ammonoid Quenstedtoceras with Discussion on Mode of Life of Ammonoids -- Jaws and Radula of Baculites from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) of North America -- Ultrastructural Analyses on the Conotheca of the Genus Belemnotheutis (Belemnitida: Coleoidea) -- Biogeography, Biostratigraphy, Ecology, and Taphonomy -- New Data on the Clymeniid Faunas of the Urals and Kazakhstan -- Deformities in the Late Callovian (Late Middle Jurassic) Ammonite Fauna from Saratov, Russia -- Biogeography of Kutch Ammonites During the Latest Jurassic (Tithonian) and a Global Paleobiogeograph Overview -- Ammonite Touch Marks in Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian-Santonian) Deposits of the Western Interior Sea -- Some Data on the Distribution and Biology of the Boreal Clubhook Squid Moroteuthis robusta (Verrill, 1876) (Onychoteuthidae, Teuthida) in the Northwest Pacific -- Habitat Ecology of Enteroctopus dofleini from Middens and Live Prey Surveys in Prince William Sound, Alaska.

This book brings together an international group of scientists focusing on present-day and fossil cephalopods, ranging broadly from Paleozoic ammonoids to today's octopods. It has three general sections dealing with: systematics and evolution; descriptions of hard- and soft part morphology; and ecology, biogeography, and taphonomy. Several highlights include new evidence for the existence of an ink sac in fossil ammonoids, a biogeographic study of clymeniid ammonoids throughout the world, the first record of a radula in baculite ammonoids, and an in-depth study of octopus ecology in Alaska. The book is remarkable in its treatment of both fossil and living forms at the same time, with the aim of presenting the wide diversity of cephalopods now and in the past.