Nautilus? Cool shell found this weekend on Catalina

[Mo2vation]

Chica and I were diving on the Barefoot Blue charter to Farnsworth Banks on Sunday (BTW - one of the best trips ever... BFB, you people rock!) and on dive #2 (Eagles Nest, I believe was the site) I stumbled on this cool shell.

I managed to carry it around for about 45 minutes, AND get it back onto the boat, AND get it home without crushing it into a zillion pieces - a big deal for me, as I'm a complete klutz.

Claudette ID'ed this as some sort of small Nautilus shell. Far be it for me to doubt, as she's much smarter than I am - but I'd like to take it a step further. Can anyone tell me what type of Nautilus, or point me to a good resource for reverse engineering shells and shell fragments like this one?

Thanks!

Ken

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ScubaBoard hates PBase. Whatever. If you get the Red X of Death, just right click and select "show photograph" and it should show up. If not, just hit f5 to reload the page, and right click again.
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[MichiganDiver]

I can't offer any help, but I agree: it's a cool shell!

Nice.

 

[knotical]

Looks like one of the argonauts.

http://www.tolweb.org/Argonauta

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Looks like one of the argonauts.

http://www.tolweb.org/Argonauta

Wow! Thank you, knotical! This link has beautiful photographs and fascinating details about this octopus.

A pelagic octopus, with dwarf males who 'donate' a body part during fertilization, and females that secrete a translucent shell for brooding eggs.

Love is stranger than fiction... and often more beautiful.

Great find, Ken! The Treasure of Sand Tour '07!

'Chica

P.S.

Claudette ID'ed this as some sort of small Nautilus shell. Far be it for me to doubt, as she's much smarter than I am -...

Wrong again, dear friend, but thanks for the vote of confidence while charging ahead to find the truth. I really thought it was the shell of a true gastropod nautilus, in spite of the lack of chambers. I had never heard of an octopus with a shell. Wonderful discovery.

 

[justleesa]

Beautiful shell, very cool find!

 

[neil]

In January, I was on a research boat at Catalina and we caught three paper nautilus' live and were able to observe them in a tank for a while. Very neat creatures. Out of their shell, they look like little translucent octopi, which of course they are.

 

[Mo2vation]

I am so fired up!!!

This is great stuff. Thanks, Knot. Unreal. Octo and Jelly? Who knew?

The ocean is vast and amazing. This is the reason I dive. You just can't get this stuff when you're dry.


---
Ken

 

[drbill]

Ken, did you post this somewhere else? I know I replied with the ID but I don't see it here.

Neil- cool to see live ones. I've never seen anything other than the shell which they create to carry their eggs while they develop. Do you have pictures of the live ones?

 

[ChrisM]

The only pics I've seen of live ones were taken by Roger Carlson. Of course, I can't find them on his website, but you could ping him for the link

http://www.rogercarlsonphotography.com/

 

[Mr.X]

An excellent find. I wish I had found something that cool @ Catalina.

X