Friday Cephalopod: So cute, you just want to kiss it
Category: Cephalopods • Organisms
Posted on: February 23, 2007 6:00 AM, by PZ Myers
Nautilus pompilius
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
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Nautilus pompilius
Comments
Posted by: Shalini | February 23, 2007 6:31 AM
Awww.....I want it as a pet.
Posted by: weemaryanne | February 23, 2007 7:06 AM
Uh - kiss it where?
Posted by: llewelly | February 23, 2007 7:08 AM
It's a protostome. It uses that opening right there in front for everything.
Posted by: beepbeepitsme | February 23, 2007 9:00 AM
That is one beautiful looking creature. Weird, but beautiful.
Posted by: beepbeepitsme | February 23, 2007 9:03 AM
It's body looks like it is made from cream silk, custard apple segments, and carved pumice stone. (I should be a fashion designer..)
Posted by: Evolving Squid | February 23, 2007 10:26 AM
Ok, WHAT is it? My limited grasp of cephalopod biology tells me that it is some kind of nautilus viewed face-on?
Posted by: Fastlane | February 23, 2007 10:34 AM
The nautilus has always been one of my favorites. :-)
I found a nautilus shell once on a scuba dive.
Cuttlefish also hold a special place in my dark, evil, heart.
Cheers.
Posted by: Evolving Squid | February 23, 2007 10:40 AM
Hmm, my keen powers of observation (i.e. I read the latin name underneath the picture... heh) confirm that it is, indeed, a nautilus.
Posted by: Steve_C | February 23, 2007 10:41 AM
Is it covered in eggs or foam of some sort?
Posted by: PZ Myers | February 23, 2007 10:51 AM
No, here's a side view. That's what they normally look like.
Posted by: Steve_C | February 23, 2007 11:08 AM
Ah. Sheathes in a way for the... tendrils?
I should wiki and learn more.
Posted by: CaseyL | February 23, 2007 12:05 PM
Holy guacamole. What an amazing critter.
I had no idea nautilii had such... odd decolletages. I thought they were basically squids-in-shells, and what came out of the shell were the eyes and tentacles. Now it seems they have a flap or sheath or something for each tentacle (as the linked side-view photo seems to indicate)?
Is this one only half-deployed?
Oh, and what's that yellowish, rather phallic-looking thungummie right above the all-purpose opening, there?
Posted by: Colugo | February 23, 2007 2:07 PM
I always had a soft spot for spiral-shelled cephalopods - nautiluses, ammonites, and argonauts.
Posted by: Chinchillazilla | February 23, 2007 4:06 PM
If I had a nautilus, I would name him Captain Nemo.
Because I can, that's why.
Hush.
Posted by: Anton Mates | February 23, 2007 5:29 PM
No, protosomes have two main holes just like us; we merely switched their roles.
The cephalopod anus is tucked away in the mantle cavity, but it's there.
Posted by: David Marjanović | February 23, 2007 8:15 PM
There is no switching. In protostomes the blastopore usually closes in the middle and forms the whole digestive tract that way; in deuterostomes it becomes the anus only, and the mouth is new. In vertebrates, incidentally, the caudal neuropore closes over the blastopore, and the anus forms later, independently.