Wildlife
Nautiluses are an order of cephalopods that live between 100 to 300 metres down in the ocean. Nautiluses have changed very little during the last 500 million years or so, and where there were once hundreds of species there are now only six that remain today. The nautilus' coiled shell has a series of chambers filled with gas, into and out of which it can pump fluid when it needs to dive or ascend. These shells show some of the most amazing spirals in nature.
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Fossil life
Swimming up from the deep ocean, a young chambered nautilus is an incredible living fossil.
Eight hundred metres below sea level, a living fossil lurks. The chambered nautilus is an ancient relative of the squid and the octopus. It migrates upwards from these depths every night to feed on the tiny shrimp by the Great Barrier Reef wall, returning back to the darkness during the day. This clip shows the first images of a baby chambered nautilus, no bigger than a two pound coin, as it propels itself forward by squirting water.
The secrets of the nautilus shell
Marcus du Sautoy reveals how the nautilus uses a simple mathematical principle to build an elegant spiral shell.
Marcus du Sautoy reveals how the nautilus uses a simple mathematical principle to build an elegant spiral shell and how The Code can be found throughout the natural world.
Super-snails
The rise of the gas-filled nautiloids gave way to the rolled up shells of ammonites.
The rise of the gas-filled nautiloids gave way to the rolled up shells of ammonites.
Fossil detection
Lyme Regis beach reveals the creatures that once dominated sea life.
Lyme Regis beach reveals the creatures that once dominated sea life.
Living fossils
Some species have remained almost unchanged for millions of years.
Some species have remained almost unchanged for millions of years.
Discover the other animals and plants that lived during the following geological time periods.
The Nautilida constitute a large and diverse order of generally coiled nautiloid cephalopods that began in the mid Paleozoic and continues to the present with a single family, the Nautilidae which includes two genera, Nautilus and Allonautilus, with six species. All told between 22 and 34 families and 165 to 184 genera have been recognised, making this the largest order of the subclass Nautiloidea.
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Devonian period
Carboniferous period
Permian period
Triassic period
Jurassic period
Cretaceous period
Palaeocene epoch
Eocene epoch
Oligocene epoch
Miocene epoch
Pliocene epoch
Pleistocene epoch
Holocene epoch