Indo-Pacific area.
Habitat. The chambered nautilus lives in tropical waters extending from the Andaman Sea east to Fiji and from southern Japan to the Great Barrier Reef. This animal usually lives where the slopes of coral reefs descend into deep waters. During the day, it resides in dark cool waters at depths from 900 to 2,000 feet and ascends to shallower waters (300 to 500 feet deep) at night to feed. The nautilus's graceful shell has made it an attractive commodity for the commercial shell trade, and Nautilus pompilius is the most commonly sold species. Traders from Indonesia, Fiji, and the Philippines capture nautiluses using baited traps. The chambered nautilus, Nautilus pompilius, is the best-known species of nautilus. The shell, when cut away, reveals a lining of lustrous nacre and displays a nearly perfect equiangular spiral, although it is not a golden spiral. Nautilus pompilius can grow to a length of about 20 cm. The smooth thin shell spirals exogastrically, or above the animal, and has a pattern of brown and white. The animal creates chambers that increase in size as it moves to occupy the outermost chamber of its shell. An adult may have about 30 of these chambers. (Nautilus pompilius). The curious-looking chambered nautilus, also known simply as the nautilus, is considered by many to be a living fossil. Nautilus pompilius is the largest and most common of about six species known to exist. Like the coelacanth, it has remained unchanged for over 400 million years. Species Overview. In most geographic areas, the chambered nautilus migrates vertically at sundown from depths of 610 meters (2000 feet) to 91 meters (300 feet) to seek prey, returning to the deep ocean at sunrise. These studies confirmed the belief that the species Nautilus pompilius is a living fossil. The chambered nautilus (Allonautilus and Nautilus species) is the only living descendent of a group of ocean creatures that thrived in the seas 500 million years ago when the earth’s continents were still forming. Geographic Range. Nautilus pompilius is found in the Indo-Pacific area. They primarily live near the bottom, in waters up to 500 meters deep, but rise closer to the surface throughout the night. (Morton 1979). 1  Biogeographic Regions. 2  pacific ocean. 3  native. The chambered nautilus, Nautilus pompilius also called pearly nautilus, is the best-known species of nautilus. The shell, when cut away, reveals a lining of lustrous nacre and displays a nearly perfect equiangular spiral, although it is not a golden spiral. The eyes of the chambered nautilus are more primitive than those of some other cephalopods; the eye has no lens and thus is comparable to a pinhole camera. The species has about 90 tentacles with no suckers, which is also different from other cephalopods Nautilus pompilius is the largest species in the genus. One form from northwestern Australia, once called Nautilus repertus, may reach 26.8 centimetres (10.6 in) in diameter. However, most nautilus species never exceed 20 centimetres (7.9 in). Nautilus macromphalus is the smallest species, usually measuring only 16 centimetres (6.3 in). A dwarf population from the Sulu Sea (Nautilus pompilius suluensis) is even smaller, with a mean shell diameter of 115.6 mm. Released to public domain. In most geographic areas, the chambered nautilus migrates vertically at sundown from depths of 610 meters (2000 feet) to 91 meters (300 feet) to seek prey, returning to the deep ocean at sunrise. These studies confirmed the belief that the species Nautilus pompilius is a living fossil. The chambered nautilus (Allonautilus and Nautilus species) is the only living descendent of a group of ocean creatures that thrived in the seas 500 million years ago when the earth’s continents were still forming. The nautilus (from the Latin form of the original Greek ναυτίλος, 'sailor') is a pelagic marine mollusc of the cephalopod family Nautilidae, the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and of its smaller but near equal suborder, Nautilina. Nautilus macromphalus is the smallest species, usually measuring only 16 centimetres (6.3 in). A dwarf population from the Sulu Sea (Nautilus pompilius suluensis) is even smaller, with a mean shell diameter of 115.6 mm.
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/Invertebrates/Facts/cephalopods/FactSheets/chamberednautilus.cfm http://eol.org/pages/590944/details http://www.seasky.org/deep-sea/chambered-nautilus.html http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/onlinelearningcenter/species/chambered_nautilus/ http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Nautilus_pompilius/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chambered_nautilus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautilus http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/onlinelearningcenter/species/chambered_nautilus/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautilus
where do the nautilus pompilius live