Nautilus

planktonic nautilus on salp

Pelagic Pack Animals

Gelatinous salps shuttle tiny creatures and excess carbon into the deep.

Latest in Nautilus
A chambered nautilus and fuzzy nautilus swim side-by-side. Photograph by Peter Ward
Downward Spiral

The nautilus’s lineage made it through all five of Earth’s previous mass extinctions. But can it survive the Anthropocene?

A brown paper nautilus rides atop a jellyfish in Balayan Bay, Luzon, the Philippines. The nautilus uses its jellyfish host as both a food source, and as a convenient and threatening vehicle.
Convenient Conveyance

For a jellyfish, there are few hitchhikers more harmful than this juvenile brown paper nautilus, and for the nautilus, few rides could be more handy.