Nautilus

Meet the Nautilus

A nautilus is a wonderful sea creature from the cephalopod family. It looks like a beautiful, spiral shell with many rooms inside. Because it has stayed almost the same for hundreds of millions of years, people call it a "living fossil". There are nine different kinds of nautilus today.

Nautiluses live deep in warm, tropical oceans. They are usually found near coral reefs far below the surface. These gentle creatures move slowly and use their many tentacles to feel around and catch small plants and animals to eat.

Their Special Shell

The nautilus has a hard, spiral shell that helps keep it safe. As it grows, it moves into new, bigger rooms inside the shell, leaving the old ones behind. This shell can even change color to help it blend into the water.

How They Move

Nautiluses swim by pushing water in and out of a special tube called a hyponome. This makes them move forward like a little jet. They are slower than some other sea animals like squid or jellyfish, but it works perfectly for them.

Living Long Lives

Nautiluses can live for more than 20 years, which is a very long time for a sea animal. They take about 15 years to grow up before they can have babies. They lay their eggs on rocks, and it takes about eight to twelve months for the eggs to hatch.

Where They Live

You can find nautiluses in warm waters of the Indo-Pacific, from places like New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands, and Vanuatu. In these places, they often live on deep slopes of coral reefs.

People all over the world admire nautiluses for their beautiful shells. Some cultures even use the shells to make decorations or special cups. However, because nautiluses grow slowly, taking them from the ocean can hurt their populations, so many places have rules to protect them.