Friday Cephalopod: So cute, you just want to kiss it

Awww.....I want it as a pet.

Uh - kiss it where?

It's a protostome. It uses that opening right there in front for everything.

That is one beautiful looking creature. Weird, but beautiful.

It's body looks like it is made from cream silk, custard apple segments, and carved pumice stone. (I should be a fashion designer..)

Ok, WHAT is it? My limited grasp of cephalopod biology tells me that it is some kind of nautilus viewed face-on?

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.

Hmm, my keen powers of observation (i.e. I read the latin name underneath the picture... heh) confirm that it is, indeed, a nautilus.

Is it covered in eggs or foam of some sort?

No, here's a side view. That's what they normally look like.

Ah. Sheathes in a way for the... tendrils?

I should wiki and learn more.

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?

I always had a soft spot for spiral-shelled cephalopods - nautiluses, ammonites, and argonauts.

If I had a nautilus, I would name him Captain Nemo.

Because I can, that's why.

Hush.

It's a protostome. It uses that opening right there in front for everything.

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.

No, protosomes have two main holes just like us; we merely switched their roles.

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.

No, protosomes have two main holes just like us; we merely switched their roles.

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.