2 thoughts on “Biodiversity Wednesday: The Chambered Nautilus”
Nautilus are pretty awesome creatures. I had a similar experience on a night dive in Vanuatu some years back, and at the time, I didn’t realize how rare of an occurrence it was to see a nautilus at shallow depths at all. Unfortunately, didn’t have a camera with me then. Lucky for us, this diver did!
To emphasize the fragility of biodiversity across time, I would like to point out that only 6 nautiloid species exist today, even though more than 2,000 have been found in the fossil record.
If a single species of nautilus goes extinct, we lose 17% of the entire group.
Nautilus are pretty awesome creatures. I had a similar experience on a night dive in Vanuatu some years back, and at the time, I didn’t realize how rare of an occurrence it was to see a nautilus at shallow depths at all. Unfortunately, didn’t have a camera with me then. Lucky for us, this diver did!
To emphasize the fragility of biodiversity across time, I would like to point out that only 6 nautiloid species exist today, even though more than 2,000 have been found in the fossil record.
If a single species of nautilus goes extinct, we lose 17% of the entire group.