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Biology and palaeontology of cephalopods - remembering Sigurd von Boletzky

Sigurd von Boletzky was a cephalopod researcher who was world-renowned for his enthusiasm for his field of research, his friendly and calm personality, and, of course, for his publications. He dedicated most of his life as active researcher on the development, biology and evolution of coleoids. Nevertheless, he was always curious to learn about other cephalopods as well. Sigurd passed away in Switzerland on September 28th 2020. This Special Issue is dedicated to his memory.

Special Issue Editors:

Christian Klug, University of Zürich

René Hoffmann, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Dirk Fuchs, Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie

Jaruwat Nabhitabhata, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand

Kenneth De Baets, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg

Ji Cheng, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Laure Bonnaud-Ponticelli, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris



  1. Sigurd von Boletzky was a cephalopod researcher who was world-renowned for his enthusiasm for his field of research, for his friendly and calm personality, and, of course, his publications. He dedicated most o...

    Authors: Christian Klug, Laure Bonnaud-Ponticelli, Jaruwat Nabhitabhata, Dirk Fuchs, Kenneth De Baets, Ji Cheng and René Hoffmann
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Palaeontology 2022 141:7
    Content type: Editorial Published on:

  2. The phragmocone-bearing coleoid cephalopods Sepia, Sepiella, Metasepia and Hemisepius (sepiids) are the most diverse of all extant chambered cephalopods and show the highest disparity. As such, they have a great ...

    Authors: Peter D. Ward, Job Lukas Veloso and Christian Klug
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Palaeontology 2022 141:6
    Content type: Research Article Published on:

  3. Relationships between growth increments of internal shell and age was studied in three neritic decapod cephalopods cultured in laboratory through their entire life cycles. The studied cephalopods were the nektic

    Authors: Jaruwat Nabhitabhata, Jiraporn Suriyawarakul, Anyanee Yamrungrueng, Kittichai Tongtherm and Surangkana Tuanapaya
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Palaeontology 2022 141:5
    Content type: Research Article Published on:

  4. The impact of increasing atmospheric CO2 and the resulting decreasing pH of seawater are in the focus of current environmental research. These factors cause problems for marine calcifiers such as reduced calcific...

    Authors: Céline Weber, Michael Hautmann, Amane Tajika and Christian Klug
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Palaeontology 2022 141:4
    Content type: Research Article Published on:

  5. The cephalopod arm armature is certainly one of the most important morphological innovations responsible for the evolutionary success of the Cephalopoda. New palaeontological discoveries in the recent past aff...

    Authors: Dirk Fuchs, René Hoffmann and Christian Klug
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Palaeontology 2021 140:27
    Content type: Research Article Published on:

  6. The second-order Pliensbachian–Toarcian crisis affected major groups of marine organisms. While its impact has been intensively studied for ammonites, the response of belemnites is only currently emerging thro...

    Authors: Kenneth De Baets, Paulina S. Nätscher, Patricia Rita, Emmanuel Fara, Pascal Neige, Jérémie Bardin, Guillaume Dera, Luís Vítor Duarte, Zoe Hughes, Peter Laschinger, José Carlos García-Ramos, Laura Piñuela, Christof Übelacker and Robert Weis
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Palaeontology 2021 140:25
    Content type: Research Article Published on:

  8. Mating was observed and described in captive individuals of Sepiola affinis, Sepiola intermedia and Sepietta obscura (Cephalopoda: Sepiolidae) collected in the Catalan Sea, western Mediterranean Sea. This is the ...

    Authors: Giambattista Bello and Adrianne Deickert
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Palaeontology 2021 140:22
    Content type: Research Article Published on:

  9. Septal crowding is widely known as a sign of maturity in conchs of ammonoids and nautiloids. However, reduced septal spacing may also occur as a consequence of adverse ecological conditions. Here, we address t...

    Authors: Sophie Marie Beck, Kenneth De Baets, Christian Klug and Dieter Korn
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Palaeontology 2021 140:21
    Content type: Research Article Published on:

  11. Nautilid, coleoid and ammonite cephalopods preserving jaws and soft tissue remains are moderately common in the extremely fossiliferous Konservat-Lagerstätte of the Hadjoula, Haqel and Sahel Aalma region, Leba...

    Authors: Christian Klug, Alexander Pohle, Rosemarie Roth, René Hoffmann, Ryoji Wani and Amane Tajika
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Palaeontology 2021 140:15
    Content type: Research Article Published on:

  12. The Aitamir Formation, situated in the Koppeh Dagh Basin in the northeast of Iran, is known for its well-exposed Albian-to-Cenomanian succession. Although geologists previously documented a number of macro- an...

    Authors: Javad Sharifi, Amane Tajika, Alireza Mohammadabadi and Mohammad Hossein Tabari Abkuh
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Palaeontology 2021 140:14
    Content type: Research Article Published on:

  13. A newly collected specimen of the enigmatic coleoid genus Longibelus is recorded from lower Turonian strata along the River Shadrinka in Sakhalin (Russian Far East). To date, this is the first record of Late Cret...

    Authors: Elena A. Jagt-Yazykova, Martin Košťák and John W. M. Jagt
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Palaeontology 2021 140:12
    Content type: Short Communication Published on:

  14. Findings of ammonoid soft tissues are extremely rare compared to the rich fossil record of ammonoid conchs ranging from the Late Devonian to the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary. Here, we apply the computed-tomog...

    Authors: R. Hoffmann, D. Morón-Alfonso, C. Klug and K. Tanabe
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Palaeontology 2021 140:11
    Content type: Research Article Published on:

  15. Especially in Lagerstätten with exceptionally preserved fossils, we can sometimes recognize fossilized remains of meals of animals. We suggest the term leftover fall for the event and the term pabulite for the...

    Authors: Christian Klug, Günter Schweigert, René Hoffmann, Robert Weis and Kenneth De Baets
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Palaeontology 2021 140:10
    Content type: Research Article Published on:

  16. Exceptional fossil preservation is required to conserve soft-bodied fossils and even more so to conserve their behaviour. Here, we describe a fossil of a co-occurrence of representatives of two different octob...

    Authors: Christian Klug, Günter Schweigert, Dirk Fuchs and Kenneth De Baets
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Palaeontology 2021 140:7
    Content type: Research Article Published on:

  17. Ammonoid soft parts have been rarely described. Here, we document the soft parts of a perisphinctid ammonite from the early Tithonian of Wintershof near Eichstätt (Germany). This exceptional preservation was e...

    Authors: Christian Klug, Günter Schweigert, Helmut Tischlinger and Helmut Pochmann
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Palaeontology 2021 140:3
    Content type: Research Article Published on: