Chambered Nautilus

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Chambered Nautilus

The Chambered Nautilus (Nautilus pompilius) is the best known species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
of nautilus

Nautilus

Nautilus is the common name of any marine creatures of the cephalopod family Nautilidae, the sole family of the suborder Nautilina....
. The shell, when cut away as in the photograph in the gallery below, reveals a lining of lustrous nacre

Nacre

Nacre, also known as mother of pearl, is an organic-inorganic composite material produced by some mollusks as an inner seashell layer. It is strong, resilient, and Iridescence....
, and displays a nearly perfect equiangular spiral

Logarithmic spiral

A logarithmic spiral, equiangular spiral or growth spiral is a special kind of spiral curve which often appears in nature. The logarithmic spiral was first described by Ren? Descartes and later extensively investigated by Jakob Bernoulli, who called it Spira mirabilis, "the marvelous spiral"....
.

The animal has more primitive eyes than some other cephalopods; the eye has no lens and thus is comparable to a pinhole camera

Pinhole camera

A pinhole camera is a very simple camera with no photographic lens and a single very small aperture. Simply explained, it is a light-proof box with a small hole in one side....
. The animal has about 90 tentacles with no suckers, which is also different from other cephalopods.

This nocturnal animal has a pair of rhinophore

Rhinophore

A rhinophore is one of a pair of club-shaped structures which are the most prominent part of the external head anatomy of a group of sea slugs, Marine gastropod opisthobranch mollusks in the order Nudibranchia, the nudibranchs, specifically the dorid nudibranchs....
s, which detect chemicals, and uses olfaction

Olfaction

Olfaction refers to the sense of smell. This sense is mediated by specialized sensory cells of the nasal cavity of vertebrates, and, by analogy, sensory cells of the antennae of invertebrates....
and chemotaxis

Chemotaxis

Chemotaxis, a kind of taxis, is the phenomenon in which bodily cells, bacterium, and other single-cell or multicellular organisms direct their movements according to certain chemicals in their environment....
in order to find its food.

Subspecies
Two subspecies

Subspecies

In biology, subspecies is the taxonomic rank immediately subordinate to a species. A subspecies is a taxonomic group which is less distinct than the Common descent or species from which it originates....
of N.

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Encyclopedia

The Chambered Nautilus (Nautilus pompilius) is the best known species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
of nautilus
Nautilus

Nautilus is the common name of any marine creatures of the cephalopod family Nautilidae, the sole family of the suborder Nautilina....
. The shell, when cut away as in the photograph in the gallery below, reveals a lining of lustrous nacre
Nacre

Nacre, also known as mother of pearl, is an organic-inorganic composite material produced by some mollusks as an inner seashell layer. It is strong, resilient, and Iridescence....
, and displays a nearly perfect equiangular spiral
Logarithmic spiral

A logarithmic spiral, equiangular spiral or growth spiral is a special kind of spiral curve which often appears in nature. The logarithmic spiral was first described by Ren? Descartes and later extensively investigated by Jakob Bernoulli, who called it Spira mirabilis, "the marvelous spiral"....
.

The animal has more primitive eyes than some other cephalopods; the eye has no lens and thus is comparable to a pinhole camera
Pinhole camera

A pinhole camera is a very simple camera with no photographic lens and a single very small aperture. Simply explained, it is a light-proof box with a small hole in one side....
. The animal has about 90 tentacles with no suckers, which is also different from other cephalopods.

This nocturnal animal has a pair of rhinophore
Rhinophore

A rhinophore is one of a pair of club-shaped structures which are the most prominent part of the external head anatomy of a group of sea slugs, Marine gastropod opisthobranch mollusks in the order Nudibranchia, the nudibranchs, specifically the dorid nudibranchs....
s, which detect chemicals, and uses olfaction
Olfaction

Olfaction refers to the sense of smell. This sense is mediated by specialized sensory cells of the nasal cavity of vertebrates, and, by analogy, sensory cells of the antennae of invertebrates....
and chemotaxis
Chemotaxis

Chemotaxis, a kind of taxis, is the phenomenon in which bodily cells, bacterium, and other single-cell or multicellular organisms direct their movements according to certain chemicals in their environment....
in order to find its food.

Subspecies

Two subspecies
Subspecies

In biology, subspecies is the taxonomic rank immediately subordinate to a species. A subspecies is a taxonomic group which is less distinct than the Common descent or species from which it originates....
of N. pompilius have been described:

Nautilus pompilius pompilius
Nautilus pompilius suluensis

N. p. pompilius is by far the most common and widespread of all nautiluses. It is sometimes called the Emperor Nautilus due to its large size. The distribution of N. p. pompilius covers the Andaman Sea
Andaman Sea

The Andaman Sea is a body of water to the southeast of the Bay of Bengal, south of Myanmar, west of Thailand and east of the Andaman Islands; it is part of the Indian Ocean....
east to Fiji
Fiji

Fiji , officially the Republic of the Fiji Islands , is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean east of Vanuatu, west of Tonga and south of Tuvalu....
and southern Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
south to the Great Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef system in the world, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately ....
. Exceptionally large specimens with a shell diameter of up to 268 mm have been recorded from Indonesia
Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia , is a transcontinental country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Comprising Islands of Indonesia, it is the world's largest Archipelago state....
and northern Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
. This giant form was described as Nautilus repertus, however most scientists do not consider it a separate species.

N. p. suluensis is a much smaller animal, restricted to the Sulu Sea
Sulu Sea

The Sulu Sea is a large sea in the southwestern area of the Philippines. It is separated from the South China Sea in the northwest by Palawan, and from the Celebes Sea in the southeast by the Sulu Archipelago....
in the southwestern Philippines
Philippines

The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
, after which it is named. The largest recorded specimen measured 148 mm in shell diameter.

In literature and art

Small natural history collections were common in mid-1800s Victorian homes, and chambered nautilus shells were popular decorations.

The Chambered Nautilus is the title and subject of a poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., was an American physician and professor who also achieved fame as a writer. During his lifetime, he was one of the best regarded poets of the 19th century and is considered a member of the Fireside Poets....
, in which he admires the "ship of pearl" and the "silent toil/That spread his lustrous coil/Still, as the spiral grew/He left the past year's dwelling for the new." He finds in the mysterious life and death of the nautilus, strong inspiration for his own life and spiritual growth. He concludes:

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!

A painting by Andrew Wyeth
Andrew Wyeth

Andrew Newell Wyeth was a visual artist, primarily a Realism painter, working predominantly in a Regionalism style. He was one of the best-known U.S....
, entitled "Chambered Nautilus," shows a woman in a canopied bed; the composition and proportions of the bed and the window behind it mirror those of a chambered nautilus lying on a nearby table.

The popular Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
n rock band
Rock Band

Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV, and distributed by Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band....
Nautilus Pompilius
Nautilus Pompilius (band)

Nautilus Pompilius , sometimes abbreviated as Nau , was a prominent Russian rock band formed in Sverdlovsk and active between 1983 and 1997....
(???????? ?????????) is named after the Chambered Nautilus.

American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
composer and commentator Deems Taylor
Deems Taylor

Deems Taylor was a United States of America composer, music critic, and promoter of classical music.Taylor was born in New York City and educated at New York University ....
wrote a cantata entitled The Chambered Nautilus in 1916.

External links
(Nautilus pompilius pompilius) (Nautilus pompilius suluensis)