Chambered Nautilus - The Shelled Cephalopod

Shelled Cephalopod!

Cousin to the Octopus, Squid, and Cuttlefish, the Chambered Nautilus is the only cephalopod that has a shell that resembles their other mollusk cousins--the "sea shells".

These shy creatures usually live in very deep water in the Indo-Pacific area and occasionally their shells float to the top and wind up on the beaches or fishermen bring them up in traps or nets.

Sometimes, scuba divers in places such as the Rock Islands of Palau where there exists sharp drop-offs to deeper water (Ngemelis Cliff, for instance), can see chambered nautilus swimming closer to the surface such that they can swim up to them and get pictures of them swimming in the open.

The nautilus propel themselves in much the same manner as their cousins--by squirting jets of water through an opening among their tentacles.

Contents at a Glance

Palauan Chambered Nautilus at the University of Guam Marine Laboratory -- Night View
Chambered Nautilus Swimming
Nautilus, Nautilus, Not a Lot of Us, Love a Nautilus. Except We Do!

Palauan Chambered Nautilus at the University of Guam Marine Laboratory -- Day View
Nautilus by the Bay.... eBay, that Is!
Nautilus Shots -- Weird Creatures of the Deep Abyss

more...

Palauan Chambered Nautilus at the University of Guam Marine Laboratory -- Night View

Chambered Nautilus Swimming

Chambered Nautilus (Ancient Squid)

The Chambered Nautilus (Nautilus pompilius) is the best known species of nautilus. The shell, when cut away reveals a lining of lustrous nacre, and displays a nearly perfect equiangular spiral. It has primitive eyes compared to other cephalopods, mostly due to the fact that they have no lens. Their eyes are comparable to a pinhole camera. It has about 90 tentacles and no suckers which is also different from other cephalopods. This nocturnal animal has a pair of rhinophores, which detect chemicals and uses olfaction and chemotaxis to find its food. From Ocean World Siam Paragon Bangkok Thailand.