Nautilus
A living fossil
Classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Subclass: Nautiloidea
Order: Nautilida
Superfamily: Nautilaceae
Family: Nautilidae
Genus: Nautilus
Species: Nautilus Repertus
Nautilus is a carnivore.
Nautilus has a chambered shell.
Nautilus uses math.
Nautilus has a family.
Where are they found?
Nautilus is a player!
How big are they?
Aren't there nautilus fossils, so why aren't they all dead?
Hold up, I see a predator!
BIO
The nautilus, a mollusk thought by sailors to be a kraken, is among the group of animals called "living fossils". There are fossils of these previously thought extinct animals in many museums around the world.
The nautilus was first illustrated in a book called Historiae animalism or "Histories of the Animals" by Conrad Gesner. This book was published in 1551-58 and 1587. Conrad Gesner heard stories from sailors about this creature and decided, based on their descriptions, to draw it.
The nautilus showed up in another book, this time a well-known book, called Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. Instead of being a sea monster, it was the name of Captain Nemo's ship. By this time archeologists had found nautili fossils, but still not a living one. Jules Verne had heard about the nautilus myth and about the fossils, giving him the idea to name the ship after the animal.
The first time that a nautilus was found in nature, not as a fossil, was in 1829. A ship near a Polynesian island found it. It was mistaken for a dead cat, but the ship's surgeon decided to take the dead nautilus and preserve it. Two years later the nautilus was declared as a living fossil.