What is a Nautilus?

@StarJo - It's too bad the people who sell nautilus shells don't collect them like you do. I'm perfectly okay with the use of animal parts in jewelry and such -- it's very natural, biodegradable, beautiful and unique -- so long as the animal was already dead when you got the material from it.

Things like killing animals for their shells, horns, fur or leather just make me mad. The animal deserves to have a life -- a nautilus can live for two decades, and takes longer than humans do to be born, for goodness' sake.

Anyway, kudos to you for being responsible and just picking up your nautilus shells from the beach. You're lucky you live in a place where they just wash up in groups like that. I would love to own a piece of nautilus shell jewelry, but I don't want to order it from most places since they probably killed a nautilus to get it.

I discourage anybody else reading this from buying nautilus shells from just anywhere -- see if you can confirm that they are humanely collected from beaches or from already-dead animals, please.

The article says a nautilus can have 90 tentacles -- 90, can you even imagine them all grabbing at a fish at once? To things that are smaller than a nautilus, they probably look like a terrifying sea monster!

The nautilus seems like a funky mixture of several other familiar sea creatures to me. I mean, it squirts ink like an octopus, hunts with tentacles like a squid, and live sin a shell an awful lot like a snail's. I wonder if all of those originally descended from the nautilus? If so, nautilus might taste a lot like escargot. Just saying.

Wow, I learned something new about these neat creatures today! I had no idea that the famous nautilus "clothing" -- that distinctive spiral shaped shell -- was sealed off into little gas areas as the creature grows to make the shell float. I always figured nautiluses -- and snails, for that matter -- made more shell as their bodies got longer and filled up more space inside.

Instead, it seems they got bigger around, so they need to move forward into a piece of the shell that is larger around, and they fill up the space behind them with gas and then seal it into sections.

This explains why snail shells tend to have little cross pieces inside the spiral -- I can't believe this never occurred to me before.

When I think of nautilus shells, it tends o make me think of science fiction and fantasy stories that are dear to my heart and involve humans and dinosaurs. The first is the Dinotopia book series. The author is an amazing painter, and he often used nautilus shell motifs in the frames of the pictures, or in the carved stone monuments and such that his characters would visit during the stories.

The second science fiction story (this one more science fiction than Dinotopia for sure) is the British television series called Primeval. Primeval is mostly about larger prehistoric creatures coming to the earth in the present age through time rifts called anomalies that keep spontaneously opening up.

In one poignant scene, though, someone who has been living in the dinosaur era for several years shows another character she is back by leaving a live nautilus on his desk. It moves its tentacles and it's still wet; every time I watch that episode, I'm simultaneously creeped out and feeling bad for the nautilus since I know they're deep sea creatures.

After reading here on WiseGEEK that they also require salt water, I feel even worse, because I know the character who found it couldn't have just popped it into some fresh water...

The beauty of the nautilus shell has inspired many beach-oriented establishments or brands to name themselves after it. One example is the Nautical Hotel in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Though the design of the hotel itself bears no resemblance to the nautilus shell, the name conveys a sense of paradise. When I think of that word, I envision myself collecting shells on a peaceful beach somewhere. It also makes me think of ships. I guess this is because of its resemblance to the word “nautical.”

Come to think of it, since Costa Rica is in the tropics, I guess you really could gather these shells on its beaches. Maybe the Nautilus Hotel really got its name from nearby shells!

I live nowhere near the beach, but I love nautilus shells. I saw a website online that sells the shells. They offer fully intact ones and ones that have been sliced in half to show the compartments.

These compartments start at the tiny end of the shell and become progressively larger toward the outer end. In a living nautilus, a tube pierces the chamber walls and connects to the creature. Through this tube, the nautilus moves its liquids and gas to alter its buoyancy.

The website has some shells that have the brown and white striped exterior removed. This reveals the pearl sheen underneath. The mother-of-pearl rainbow appearance is strikingly beautiful.

@Animalz – Actually, nautilus shells are often used in jewelry. They’re also used in sand ceremonies and wedding rituals around the world. You can buy sliced and pearlized (whitened and buffed to a pearl-like finish) nautilus shells in bulk online. I found slices online for $7 each.

Many people love jewelry made with real shells, and there are few shells that can match the beauty of a nautilus shell. That’s unfortunate for the nautiluses.

I collect paper nautilus shells. I gather them myself on the beach.

I live in the tropics, and paper nautilus dwell here in the ocean water near the surface instead of at the bottom. Probably because of this, they wash up on shore often, sometimes in big groups.

The shells have a beautiful pearly, off-white, ribbed surface. The keel has several small knobs on it. They look like something straight out of a mermaid fairy-tale. I have also seen shells that are sort of bronze or sepia colored. The cream colored ones are more common around here, though, and they are so beautiful in the sunlight.

People kill nautiluses for their shells? What do they use the shells for? I’ve never seen one on jewelry or anything.

@kangaBurg – The nautilus is my favorite animal, and I’ve studied them for a while. I don’t recommend owning one. They live in the deep sea, where it’s really cold, so you’d need to keep your fish tank super cold for one to be comfortable. They need salty water, which can be hard to keep at the proper salinity.

And most of them live where there isn’t much light, so you’d have to cover the tank up so the poor thing doesn’t get blinded. Then you’d need to give it enough room to swim around in, which means you’d need a really tall tank (they like to float up and down). And they’re close to being endangered, too. I don’t think it’s a good idea.

Nautiluses are so beautiful! I really want one for a pet. I love fish and have a few fish tanks. I haven’t seen a nautilus in any pet stores, though. Is it illegal to have one, or are they just really hard to take care of?

I watched an undersea life program on TV that showcased the paper nautilus. It is actually octopus-like and has eight tentacles.

The female paper nautilus is the only one who builds a shell. She uses the shell only to protect her eggs, which she places inside the shell in long threads. She lives in the entry of the shell and guards them until they hatch.

The paper nautilus has wide flaps that resemble sails on the ends of her first pair of tentacles. She will hold these over the shell and use them to catch food as it swims into them.