Cephalopod paleobiology and evolution: new insights, rising problems, and perspectives

In times when science, including paleontology, is being questioned by some, the rising interest in the paleontology and paleobiology of the most intelligent invertebrates, namely cephalopods, may raise the hope for a brighter future. Here we provide an overview of some exciting fields in cephalopod research, where (in our biased opinion) the most impressive advances have been made. These are, in roughly stratigraphical order: the phylogeny of early cephalopods (using Bayesian approaches); the origin of ammonoids; functional morphology of ammonoids (using ammonoid robots, grinding tomography, finite element analyses); stable isotope geochemistry of Mesozoic–Cenozoic cephalopods; ammonoid reproduction (based on exceptionally preserved fossils and substantive fecundity estimates); ammonoid morphological evolution and biodiversity dynamics; early coleoid evolution (multispectral imaging, RTI); new coleoid systematics; coleoid anatomy (synchrotron, UV); coleoid diversity in the Cretaceous (“digital fossil mining,” i.e., a system that excavates all fossils embedded in rocks through a combination of automated grinding tomography and artificial intelligence); food-web positions of various cephalopods (as prey or predator); and nautiloid evolution. Furthermore, we highlight some fields that require research focus and discuss threats and problems impacting research on fossil cephalopods.