Comments

  2. True Bob says

    Very nice pic, PZ. Composition is really good, and nautilii are so…peculiar.

  3. Holbach says

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

  5. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. says

    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!

  7. Shintern says

    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.

  9. azqaz says

    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.

  10. SC says

    They should have more photos like this up in hospitals and similar settings. It’s very soothing.

  11. Vidar says

    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?

  13. Lilly de Lure says

    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?

  16. Josephine says

    I drew a picture of a Nautilus pompilius back in ’06 that looks just like the picture which you featured above. Though, I can now see that I may have allowed my artistic freedom to elongate the tentacles (a great deal). Ah well, thank you for posting such a beautiful image for us all to behold!

  22. coffeedryad says

    Incidentally, Nautilus Pompilius is the name of a pretty good Russian rock group. The videos I was able to find on Youtube don’t seem to feature caphalopods, though.

  23. Lilly de Lure says

    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!