Note 525 — Chapter XI · THE LOGARITHMIC SPIRAL (continued 2)

In Nautilus, the “hood” has somewhat different dimensions in the two sexes, and these differences are impressed upon the shell, that is to say upon its “generating curve.” The latter constitutes a somewhat broader ellipse in the male than in the female. But this difference is not to be detected in the young; in other words, the form of the generating curve perceptibly alters with advancing age. Somewhat similar differences in the shells of Ammonites were long ago suspected, by D’Orbigny, to be due to sexual differences. (Cf. Willey, Natural Science, VI, p. 411, 1895; Zoological Results, p. 742, 1902.)