Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago

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The Palau nautilus, Nautilus belauensis, spends its days hiding out in crevices and foraging by night on the reef slope!

Considered to be the most “primitive” cephalopod, these “living fossils” trace their ancestry back 500 million years. Unlike their distant cousins the octopus and the squid, nautiluses live inside a hard shell made up of spiraling chambers. They pump seawater through these sealed chambers to swim and maintain buoyancy.

#NautilusesAreAwesome #LivingFossils #GiveReefsAChance #KeepItWeird

📹 by Evan Kovacs/Marine Imaging Technologies © #WHOI