Cut Nautilus Shell

The wonderfully shaped nautilus shell with its natural brown tiger like stripes reveals its delicate inner chambers now the shell has been cut and sliced in half.

The cut on these shells is in actual fact more than a straight half, the window type cut used displays the chambers whilst leaving the maximum area of the shell's beautiful striped exterior.

Related to the octopus, squid and clam, the spiralled nautilus shell is divided into chambers with the animal occupying the outermost chamber.

A newly hatched nautilus begins life with about four chambers and develops an average of 30 chambers by adulthood. The inner chambers are filled with gas and help the nautilus to maintain neutral buoyancy. By adding liquid to the chambers it is then able to dive.

The nautilus is also considered to be a "living fossil" as they have undergone little change in over 400 million years.

They dominated the ancient seas before the rise of fishes and appeared about 265 million years before the first dinosaurs. In prehistoric times there were about 10,000 different species of the nautilus, but only five species have survived to the present day.

Common to the Western Pacific.

(The images were taken at Lyme Regis in Dorset on a stretch of exposed ammonite fossils).

Sold as one cut half of a nautilus shell.

Size: approx 16-17 cm across

Please note:

It's inevitable that some of the incredibly delicate inner chamber walls may have received some damage caused by the cutting process despite highly experienced operators.

We would never send an example out with lots of damage, but as you can imagine, its rather like trying to cut a piece of tissue paper with a circular saw towards the centre.

Sorry this species is not available for international sales.