Nautilus pompilius mollusk interesting facts. Five interesting facts about the rock band Nautilus Pompilius

People have been exploring the nature of the planet for a long time. It is full of miracles and unknown secrets. Animal and vegetable world rich in various species. One of the most interesting marine inhabitants is the nautilus (mollusk). Its amazing shell is so striking in its beauty that people have learned to make various decorations from this material. This is very ancient inhabitant ocean, as mysterious and mysterious as the submarine ship of the same name of Captain Nemo from the novel by Jules Verne.

general characteristics

The nautilus mollusk (from the Latin Nautilus) is a fairly ancient inhabitant of our planet. This species has existed for more than 500 million years. Nautiluses belong to the class They are distant relatives of octopuses, squids and cuttlefish.

The nautilus mollusk looks quite original. It has a full sink. This is not a rudiment. Nautilus (mollusk) has a shell located outside. In other cephalopods it is located inside.

There are only 6 species of nautilus mollusks, which have much in common in their structure. Two of them are officially considered extinct. From the class of cephalopods, these are the most primitive creatures.

Shell structure

Nautilus is a cephalopod whose body is covered with a spiral-shaped shell. Depending on the type of this creature, it has a diameter of 16 to 25 cm. The largest shells are those of the imperial nautilus, a subspecies of which is called pompilus. The smallest nautiluses are macromphalus.

The shell is twisted in one plane and has chambers. These compartments are connected to each other by special valves. The largest chamber contains the body of the mollusk. All other compartments serve as ballast. To dive to depth, the sea dweller fills the chambers with water, and to emerge with air.

The upper part of the shell has dark color, and the bottom one is light. This allows them to camouflage themselves to avoid encounters with predators. Inner side mother-of-pearl shells.

This amazing creation of nature is quite fragile. Therefore, nautiluses do not descend to a depth of less than 500 m. They live at a depth of 20 to 100 m.

Structure of the mollusk

To understand what a nautilus mollusk looks like, you need to familiarize yourself with its structure. His body has a head and a torso. It is somewhat more primitive than its counterparts. The head has a special blade to close the shell in case of danger. The eyes and mouth opening are also located here. Ninety tentacles are located next to it. They perform the functions of hands. The tentacles have suckers and highly developed muscles. They help the sea dweller move, catch prey and put it in his mouth.

From the shell of a mollusk you can determine its lifespan. For this purpose, a chemical analysis is done. At the beginning of life, the nautilus has only seven chambers, and then, every three weeks, another compartment is added to them. This growth slows down only at the age of ten.

The mouth has two jaws. This allows you to snack on solid foods. There is a muscular pharynx with salivary glands. It passes into the esophagus, which leads to the stomach. The ducts of the bilobed liver open into it. From the stomach it goes into the large intestine. In the mantle cavity it ends with the anus.

Body systems

The body systems that the nautilus has deserve special attention. The mollusk, whose structure differs from similar cephalopods of the sea, has two pairs of gills, four kidney sacs and atria. Its nervous system consists of three ganglia.

This mollusk lacks the gland that produces the ink liquid. The eyes are quite primitive. There are no external photoreceptors, vitreous body or lens. But the olfactory organs are well developed. He uses them while hunting.

A mantle with a muscular wall covers the entire body of the nautilus. When contracting, this organ strongly pushes water through the mantle cavity. This pushes the animal backwards. When relaxed, the cavity fills with water again.

Reproduction

Nautilus is a marine mollusk that reproduces by spermatophore. Individuals are dioecious. The male transfers the spermatophore to the mantle region of the female. This is where fertilization takes place.

The female lays large eggs, from which new individuals appear after 6 months. Their shell and body are already fully formed. They are no different from adult nautiluses.

When the female's shell reaches 9 cm in diameter, and the male's 11 cm, puberty begins. Man saw the nautilus embryo for the first time only in 1985. This vitality of this species is explained by large genetic variability. It is twice as much as in humans. However, why this species has remained unchanged for so many years, scientists cannot yet say.

Nautilus (mollusk) has a shell twisted in accordance with the law of logarithmic progression. This animal was using a mathematical formula many millions of years before it was described in 1638 by Rene Descartes.

For many years people have been making beautiful mother-of-pearl chambers into beautiful ones. decorative items. Animals are also kept in aquariums. The cost of one individual is quite high, and its maintenance is even more expensive. Therefore, only large aquariums can afford such pleasure.

Due to increased human interest in such species, their numbers in the world's oceans have sharply decreased over the past few decades. Scientists are sounding the alarm and calling this animal species endangered. If they disappear, the ancient secrets of nature will disappear along with them. And this cannot be allowed.

Having become acquainted with such a marine inhabitant as the nautilus (mollusk), we can say that this is an interesting, mysterious species. It is shrouded in mystery and is especially interesting for naturalists due to its ancient, unchanged state, and can tell a lot about the distant past. Humanity must make every effort to preserve nautiluses on the planet.

"Nautilus" is the name of the underwater ship of the brave Captain Nemo in work of art Jules Verne, whom probably everyone without exception has heard of. Its memorable feature was that it would sometimes appear over the ocean and amazingly disappeared without a trace from his pursuers. Captain Nemo's sea vessel was named after the mysterious and unique inhabitant of the sea kingdom - the nautilus.

Who are Nautiluses?

Distinguish whole line cephalopods, of which up to 6 species are known, two of them are currently considered extinct. During the Paleozoic era (about 500 million years ago), some of them populated the earth's oceans. The special uniqueness of these species is the external spiral-shaped twisted shell, which gives them an ambiguous, attractive appearance. The most popular view considered Nautilus pompilius, mollusk large sizes. In general, all animals of this type are similar to each other, the difference is observed only in the habitat and some individual characteristics of the mollusk shells. Nautilus pompilius are considered the largest, the second name of which sounds like imperial. The diameter of the shell can reach 25 cm. Macrophalus nautiluses are traditionally considered the smallest, measuring up to 16 cm.

Historical value

Nautilus is a cephalopod that is related to octopuses, cuttlefish and squids. The shells of these sea inhabitants were discovered by the ancient Greeks, but the mystery of their structures could not be understood until 1892. It was then that Richard Owen (the famous paleontologist and zoologist) asked a doctor friend who was heading to the Pacific Ocean to bring a sample of the creature that lives in this shell. The doctor managed to obtain a live nautilus and immediately sent it to Owen for further research. The scientist was able to find out that this species of animal belongs to cephalopods. This means that the nautilus is a marine mollusk with big head and many "hands". In most cephalopods the shell is hidden in the middle of the body, but in our nautiluses it is external.

Nautilus (mollusk): photo of shell structure

The spiral shell with a diameter of 15-23 cm is divided into 38 chambers, which are connected one after another by a siphon. The mollusk itself lives in the last, largest chamber. The shell is used as a float and ballast. By collecting biogas into the compartments or pumping it out of them, the nautilus can float to the surface of the water or descend into its very thickness. The shell wall consists of two layers, the outer layer being deposited by the edge of the mantle. This layer is similar to porcelain and, accordingly, is called porcelain-like. Beneath it lies an inner layer that has a pearlescent sheen; such a shell is called mother-of-pearl. And also the nautilus, in comparison with other cephalopods, has 4 gills, the heart has four atria. The brain and eyes of the nautilus are very simple.

The body of the nautilus and its features

The body of this animal consists of a head and a torso. Leg complements typical image all mollusks, which has changed over time, and now it is a funnel. It consists of a wide sole and leads into the mantle cavity, thereby performing the function of a motor. Thanks to this, the mollusk floats and moves slowly along the bottom.

The nautilus shell is his real home. A special hollow tube allows the animal to pump gas and water into the chambers of its wonderful shell in order to swim at a specific depth. If he needs to go lower, he adds water to his sink, and to go up, he fills the chambers with gas. The animal's body itself lives in the largest chamber spiral. In a kind of hiding place, the Nautilus pompilius, a cephalopod mollusk, hides, exposing its tentacles, as well as its mouth, which looks a little like a beak. He does not have suction cups on his arms, like an octopus, but despite this, they are still quite strong. The nautilus (mollusk) grabs a crab or fish with them and sends its prey into its mouth.

Clam House Features

Sink sea ​​creature very fragile. The nautilus (mollusk), as a rule, does not descend deeper than 500 m, since its chambers are not able to withstand high water pressure and burst in an instant. In such cases, nothing can help the nautilus; it will never surface again. Due to their characteristics and features, all nautiluses live close to the surface. They usually scurry around in search of food at a depth of 20-100 m and near coral reefs. Nautilus pompilius, a mollusk whose photo is presented in the article, leads a benthic lifestyle. Its diet includes carrion and plants. He can go hungry for a very long time, going without food for about a month.

Nautilus and man

The mother-of-pearl inner layer of the shell made this animal a famous object of extremely successful fishing. They were especially highly valued in the 16th century, where they were used to create bowls, jewelry. Today, the fashion for mother-of-pearl is still relevant. In addition, people love to keep them in aquariums, but since the nautilus (mollusk) is expensive, only rich people can afford to keep it in their aquarium. In pet stores you can see a copy for a thousand dollars. It must be remembered that an animal needs a container of at least 500 liters.

Number

Biologists cannot give accurate data on the number of this species of animal. But it is known that they are in danger of extinction. In 2011, the number of nautiluses was assessed by catching them using bottom traps. Every day, no more than two nautiluses were caught in forty traps that were placed near the island of Bohol. This figure is many times less than about ten years ago.

One day in the active life of a nautilus

This animal finds its immediate prey thanks to one primitive eye; it looks like a camera without a lens and can recognize light and movement. IN daytime the mollusk tries to stay at a depth of 300 m, sometimes climbing to the surface of the sea or grabbing a stone with its long tentacles. At night, the mollusk swims upward, but rarely rises above 100 m, because warm water destructive for him.

The nautilus mollusk, as we have already found out, is a close relative of animals such as octopuses and squids. They are smart, agile, dexterous and move with the help of a “jet stream”, pushing water out behind them under strong pressure. This helps them get food, swim out and descend to depth. A hollow tube in the middle of the body (funnel) acts like a siphon, through which liquid is sucked in or released. The siphon can only pass a small amount of water, so the mollusk moves quite slowly and in peculiar jerks. It seems to freeze in the depths of the sea, somewhat reminiscent of an ancient airship. Unique feature of this animal is to move backwards.

Nautiluses(lat. Nautilus) is a genus of cephalopods. This is the only one modern gender subclass of nautiloids (in other systems the genus Allonautilus is also distinguished) and are the only ones among modern cephalopods that have an external chamber shell.

The spiral shell with a diameter of 15-23 cm is divided into 35-38 chambers, connected in series by a long siphon. The mollusk lives in the front, largest chamber. The shell is used as a float and ballast. By pumping biogas into the shell chambers or pumping it out of them, the nautilus is able to float to the surface of the water or sink into its thickness.

Nautilus- the only modern genus of the subclass of nautiloids (but some authors allocate some of its species to the genus Allonautilus). This subclass appeared in the Cambrian, and during the Paleozoic was very diverse.

Ancient famous representatives of the genus Nautilus is N. praepompilius Shimansky. N. pompilius has been known since the Lower Pleistocene. Fossil shells of these mollusks are rare. Last common ancestor modern species existed, judging by the analysis of their nuclear and mitochondrial DNA, only a few million years ago.

The body consists of a head and torso. The leg, characteristic of all mollusks, is greatly modified. The back of the leg has turned into a funnel - a conical tube leading into the mantle cavity, with the help of which the mollusks swim. In nautiluses, it is formed by the coiling of a leaf-shaped leg, which usually has a wide sole, into a tube, while the curling edges of the leg do not grow together. Nautiluses use their legs to either slowly crawl along the bottom, or rise and swim slowly, carried by currents.

Around the mouth there are tentacles, or arms, which are seated with several rows of strong suckers and have powerful muscles. It turns out that the tentacles of cephalopods, like the funnel, are homologues of part of the leg. In embryonic development, the tentacles are laid on the ventral side behind the mouth from the leg bud, but then move forward and surround the mouth opening. The tentacles and infundibulum are innervated by the pedal ganglion. Mollusks of the genus Nautilus have up to 90 tentacles. They serve to capture food and move around.

Nautiluses have a well-developed thin shell, the diameter of which reaches 26.8 cm. It is twisted in one plane and divided into chambers. The largest contains the body of the animal, and the rest serve to float up and dive to certain depths, partially filling either with air with a high nitrogen content or with water.

Females are smaller than males: the diameter of their shell is about 11-12 cm, versus 13-14 for males. A newborn nautilus has a length of 2.5 cm. Puberty in females occurs when the shell grows to 9 cm, in males - up to 11 cm.

Shell color varies among different representatives, most often it is brindle: on a white background there are brown uneven stripes across it. Usually top part darker than the bottom one; this is a camouflage from predators: the light lower part is less noticeable against the background of the water surface, and the dark part, on the contrary, merges with the seabed. Interior mother-of-pearl shells.

For adult individuals, the growth rate is 0.061 mm per day, for immature individuals - 0.068 mm per day.

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Nautiluses are one of the most ancient inhabitants of the sea, which have remained virtually unchanged since Paleozoic times. However, from the once large family, only one genus remains, which includes 6 species.

Nautiluses have an external shell that resembles a snail's shell. And the structure of the shell itself is very interesting - it is divided into several segments. The mollusk itself is located in one segment. In the rest, he pumps water or gas at will in order to sink to the bottom or rise to the surface.

They live at the bottom. They mostly eat there. On the tentacles of mollusks there are many olfactory receptors, through which it finds small crustaceans and bottom fish. Nautilus vision and hearing are primitive. And the mollusk itself lags far behind its cephalopod relatives in development.

They reproduce slowly. It takes 6 months for a small, several centimeter mollusk to hatch from an egg fixed in shallow water. But nautiluses are born with a fully formed shell and ready to independently search for food.

The nautilus shell is lined with mother-of-pearl on the inside. That's why shellfish for a long time were caught en masse. Now from the shells for the most part they make souvenirs and decorations, and in the Middle Ages they were used to make exclusive bowls for the nobility.

It is also interesting that after the death of the owner, the shell does not sink to the bottom, but floats through the seas with the current.

Was founded 34 years ago legendary group“Nautilus Pompilius”, the songs of which were sung by everyone who has ever been drunk.

01 Initially the group was called “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”, but a year later the musicians decided to change the name to “Nautilus”. But, since several groups with the same name already existed in the Soviet Union, in 1985 Ilya Kormiltsev (the author of most of the texts) proposed adding “Pompilius”. (As you probably already know, Nautilus pompilius is the name of a species of mollusk.) 02 In 1989, the group was nominated for the Lenin Komsomol Prize. The founders of Nautilus, Dmitry Umetsky and Vyacheslav Butusov, as well as Ilya Kormiltsev, were invited to the presentation, but only Umetsky came (he donated his share to orphanages in Sverdlovsk). Butusov ignored the ceremony and transferred all the money to the Peace Fund. Kormiltsev completely refused the award, saying that it was strange “to accept an award from an organization that you do not recognize.” 03 The album “Separation” (“This music will be eternal”, “View from the screen”, “Bound by one chain” and other hits) was recorded in the basement of Sverdlovsky architectural institute, where the founders of the group studied. 04 The song “View from the Screen” (popularly known as “Alain Delon doesn’t drink cologne”) is a free translation of the hit Robert De Niro’s Waiting by the Bananarama group. 05 Epitaph on the grave of Ilya Kormiltsev (he died suddenly of cancer at the age of 47 in 2007) - a line from a song he wrote: “This music will be eternal if I replace the batteries.” 08 Fearing the KGB, Nautilus decided to distribute the album “Separation” in Sverdlovsk without last song(“Bound by one chain”), in other regions the recording was distributed without cuts. 06 In the song “Doctor of Your Body,” Alla Borisovna Pugacheva herself performed backing vocals. This is how an eyewitness, photographer Eliyahu Lemke, recalls it: “Pugacheva visited the studio, listened to Butusov sing, was indignant and began to teach him vocals in practice, showing the correct intonations. All this remained on film, and during the mixing, the insidious Kalyanov mixed Pugachev’s voice into the final version. So Alla Borisovna found herself in an unexpected role as a backing vocalist. 07 Alexey Balabanov, director of the legendary “Brother” (which, by the way, greatly fueled interest in the work of “Nautilus” among the broad masses), was great friend groups are still in Sverdlovsk. Often, during joint drinking sessions, he began to drag out Russian folk songs, especially “A Separation.” One day the musicians started singing along with him, and they liked the sound of the song so much that they decided to include it in the album, where it became the title song. 09 Vyacheslav Butusov has a bad memory, and he often forgets the words of his songs, so at concerts there is a music stand with lyrics in front of him. 10 “Nautilus” is devoted to the song “Chaifa” “White Crow” (also known as “AAAAAAAAAAAA White crow"). There is a whole line dedicated to Vyacheslav Butusov: “Slava listens to Seva.” This is a reference to the fact that the Nautilus leader liked Seva Novgorodtsev's radio broadcast.

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