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What creature has a face that only a mother could love and a beautiful home that is sought after and collected worldwide?  The Chambered Nautilus shell is widely recognized for it’s shape, coloring and size, but I wonder how many owners of such a treasure from the sea know much about the creature that once lived inside the shell.

I really never gave the Nautilus shell much thought until I began writing my seashell blog, Seashells by Millhill, where I have tried to supply as much information as possible through my blog posts for readers to identify their sea finds or learn more about the shells they’ve collected.  As I was researching information about the popular Chambered Nautilus, I discovered that this creature was not like the other mollusks (or shell dwelling creatures) I’d been writing about.

It is known as a living fossil because it has not changed much in millions of years.  A leathery flap closes over the end of the shell when the animal has to hide from predators and when it is out it is quite a sight.   With big “eyes” which they can’t see well out of, and ninety or so tentacles moving around, it is one strange looking creature.

It has the name “chambered” because of the sectioned off areas, or chambers, that follow the curve of the shell.  These are easy to see whenever you come across a picture of the shell sliced in half, and those pictures are generally easy to find.  Someone had the idea to do so to help show the uniqueness of this shell.  The animal living inside is a cephalopod and only lives in the outermost chamber.  As the animal grows it builds a new chamber which is larger than the last.  It begins with four tiny chambers from birth and when it moves to the new chamber.   Depending on how much water is in the various chambers, the creature can control it’s buoyancy and it uses water drawn into the outer chamber to propel itself along.  The largest of these shells can be over ten inches in diameter.

Another interesting feature of the shell concerns the coloring.  The bottom is light, or white, colored while the top has those brownish stripes and the reason for the coloring helps keep the animal “hidden” from predators.  A predator looking up at the Nautilus will find it hard to see as the light coloring makes it blend in with the lighter water toward the surface and likewise looking down at the nautilus will make it appear to blend with the darker waters below.  This is called countershading and it’s mostly seen in water creatures.

They live near reefs in the Indo-Pacific, a range which includes the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean where they occasionally feed on shrimp, crustaceans and small fish.  They use their many tentacles to grab prey, but only need to eat about once a month.

Although I have written about my own seashells, I don’t have a nautilus and really don’t think I’d want one.  As often happens, once you realize the amazing beauty of the living creature, having it’s shell is a bit sad.  I find these ancient looking sea creatures to be among the most interesting of the mollusks.

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