Pharyngula

Posted by: Michelle | June 13, 2008 6:51 AM

These kind are so COOL! I love the shell

I wanna draw it. :D

Posted by: Holbach | June 13, 2008 7:06 AM

The Chambered Nautilus! Always liked this shell guy and have a large photo in a folder!

Posted by: Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. | June 13, 2008 7:55 AM

THIS is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sails the unshadowed main, --
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,--
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year's dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft steps its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap, forlorn!
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn!
While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings --

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-valulted 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!

Posted by: Shintern | June 13, 2008 8:05 AM

Ugh, the blue only make me crave respite from all the brown I have to look at... I need to get out of parasitology, it's far too deep in shit.

Posted by: azqaz | June 13, 2008 9:18 AM

Well, I won't be seeing any of these beautiful creatures in the carribbean the next two weeks, but maybe I will see some reef squid, or an octopuss or two.

Posted by: Vidar | June 13, 2008 10:21 AM

Higher resolution version requested, please. Something desktop-sized (1600X1200 would be nice.)

Also, I know next to nothing about nautilii (nautilusses, nautiloi?). Besides the pin-hole camera eyes, are there any other interesting factoids about this head-foot?

Posted by: Lilly de Lure | June 13, 2008 10:39 AM

Vidar said:

Higher resolution version requested, please. Something desktop-sized (1600X1200 would be nice.)

Seconded - I need something soothing for my work desktop at the moment!

Also, I know next to nothing about nautilii (nautilusses, nautiloi?). Besides the pin-hole camera eyes, are there any other interesting factoids about this head-foot?

I think it's Nautili but if any linguist knows better, feel free to correct!

As for an interesting factoid - Nautili are "living fossil" cephalopods and fossil nautiloids essentially resembling living specimens are found dating as far back as the Ordivician Era (c.489 - 443 mya). Is that OK?

Posted by: Owen | June 13, 2008 12:33 PM

That looks like a "Cephalopods for Obama" ad.

Posted by: Tom | June 14, 2008 6:26 AM

Wow a Cephalopod disguising as a tiger/zebra thingy.

Posted by: Happy Quark | June 14, 2008 10:04 AM

For anybody looking for a desktop sized photograph of the nautilus, I have found this one which I quite like.

http://science.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/Science/Images/Content/swimming-nautilus-42-17992663-xl.jpg

It isn't the same photograph but I would argue it is an equally attractive one.

Posted by: Steve | June 16, 2008 2:30 AM

They are so beautiful, yet so odd and primitive. Thanks for the pic.

Posted by: Lilly de Lure | June 16, 2008 6:25 AM

Happy Quark said:

For anybody looking for a desktop sized photograph of the nautilus, I have found this one which I quite like.

Thanks Happy Quark - it's just what I was looking for!