For other uses, see Nautilus (disambiguation).

The nautilus is a marine creature of the class Cephalopoda. The five nautilus species are the sole living members of the subclass Nautiloidea, order Nautilida. Nautilus is also the name of one of the two genera in the Nautilidae family. Allonautilus is the other genus and is very similar to Nautilus. They are found only in the western Pacific, inhabiting waters around coral reefs. The species has survived relatively unchanged for millions of years, much like the coelacanth.

Its name came from the Greek nautilos, which means "sailor". The name originally referred to the Argonauta, otherwise called the paper nautilus, because it was alleged to use its two disk-bearing arms as sails.

The nautilus is similar in general form to other cephalopods, with a prominent head and undifferentiated tentacles. Nautiluses have up to ninety tentacles, although without suckers. Unlike the other living members of the class, the bony structure of the body is externalised as a shell, providing protection and buoyancy.

Cutaway of a nautilus shell showing the chambers

The shell is calcareous and internally divided in chambers, known as phragmocones, that are divided by septa and are all pierced by a tube, the siphuncle. The last fully open chamber is the living chamber. As the nautilus matures its body moves forward, sealing the shell behind it. Adults can have thirty or more chambers to their shell. The buoyancy is generally neutral, but it can be controlled by gas and fluid being pumped into or from the chambers by an osmotic process along the siphuncle. The control of buoyancy in this manner limits the nautilus; they cannot operate under extreme hydrostatic pressures. In the wild nautiluses usually inhabit depths of about 600–800 m, rising to around 200 m at night for feeding, mating and egglaying.

Like other cephalopods they swim by jet action, using their hyponome and by pistoning water by head movements into and out of the living chamber. They are predators and feed mainly on shrimp and other small sea-life.

Unlike other cephalopods they do not have good vision. Their eye structure is highly developed but lacks a lens - there is simply a hole through which water can pass.

Nautiluses are sexually dimorphic and reproduce by eggs. Attached to rocks in shallower waters, the eggs take twelve months to develop before hatching out at around 30 mm long. The largest adults are no more than 300 mm in diameter.

Classification

• CLASS CEPHALOPODA
  • Subclass Nautiloidea: modern and ancient nautiluses
    • (Order Bacritina: extinct nautiloids)
    • Order Nautilida: modern nautiluses
      • Family Nautilidae
        • Allonautilus perforatus
        • Crusty Nautilus, Allonautilus scrobiculatus
        • Palau Nautilus, Nautilus belauensis
        • Bellybutton Nautilus, Nautilus macromphalus
        • Nautilus pompilius
          • Emperor Nautilus, Nautilus pompilius pompilius
          • Chambered Nautilus, Nautilus pompilius suluensis
        • White-patch Nautilus, Nautilus stenomphalus
  • Subclass Coleoidea: Squids, octopuses, cuttlefish

Fossil records indicate that the nautiloids were much more extensive and varied in the past. They developed in the Cambrian Period and were a significant sea predator in the Ordovician Period, certain species reaching over 2.5 meters in size. The other cephalopod subclass, Coleoidea, diverged over 400 million years ago and the nautilus is relatively unchanged since that time. Extinct relatives of the nautilus include ammonites, such as the baculites.