Five interesting facts about the rock band Nautilus Pompilius. Nautilus - cephalopod mollusk: photo, description

Nautilus pompilius is a living fossil, the only surviving representative of the previously numerous and diverse group ancient cephalopods.

The shells of Nautilus pompilius, as well as the Argonaut octopus, were known to the ancient Greeks. However, these bizarre shells, no larger than a football, remained a mystery until 1829. It was then that Richard Owen (an outstanding English zoologist and paleontologist), learning that his colleague was appointed as a ship's doctor on a ship that was leaving for Pacific Ocean, asked him to “do everything possible” to bring back a sample of the creature living inside such a shell. Near one of the Polynesian islands, the doctor noticed a living nautilus near the surface of the water, pulled it on board the ship, carefully preserved it and sent it to Owen for research.

Ancient creature

Richard Owen found out that the animal belongs to cephalopods - marine mollusks with a large head and many “arms”. In many cephalopods the shell is hidden inside the body, but in nautiluses it is external. Compared to their extinct ancestors who lived at the end of the Triassic, nautiluses have changed little. Their close relatives also include ancient ammonites.

The shell of the nautilus is its home. Using a special hollow tube, the animal pumps gas and water into the shell chambers to swim at a certain depth. If it needs to go down, the nautilus “tops up” water, and to rise, it fills the chambers with gas.

The body of the nautilus is located in the largest chamber of the spiral: in this hiding place the mollusk hides, exposing only its tentacles and mouth, which is very reminiscent of a beak.

Unlike the tentacles of an octopus, the “arms” of a nautilus do not have suction cups, but they are still very strong. The mollusk grabs a crab or fish with them and brings the victim to its mouth.

A day in the life of a nautilus

The nautilus detects its prey with the help of one primitive eye, which resembles a camera without a lens and is capable of distinguishing only light and movement.

During the day, the mollusk stays at a depth of about 300 m, from time to time rising above the seabed or clinging to a stone with its tentacle-like arms. At night, the nautilus floats up, but rarely rises above 100 m from the sea surface, since in warm water he may die.

The cephalopod nautilus is a distant relative of modern octopuses, cuttlefish and squids. Smart and agile mollusks move using a “jet stream”: they throw water behind them under high pressure. This helps them in hunting and allows them to rise and fall in the water column. The hollow tube inside the body of the nautilus (funnel - see above) acts like a siphon through which it is sucked in or thrown out. sea ​​water. Since the siphon allows only a small amount of it to pass through, the mollusk moves slowly, jerkily. It seems to float in the water, reminiscent of an old-fashioned airship. Plus, the nautilus swims backwards!

Nautiluses should not descend to a depth of more than 800 meters, otherwise their shell will burst under water pressure.

a brief description of

Name: Nautilus pompilius (ship).
Latin name: nautilus pompilius.
Type: shellfish.
Class: cephalopods.
Main differences: spiral shell of contrasting color: light at the bottom, dark at the top; with cameras.
Size: up to 26.8 centimeters.
Habitat: tropical waters, especially near deep-sea coral reefs.
Food: remains of lobster shells, hermit crabs, carrion.
Lifestyle: during the day it stays at a depth of 300-600 m, at night it rises upward (to a depth of 100-150 m) to get food.

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 various types. 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 jewelry 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. The inside of the shell is mother-of-pearl.

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. This is what is being done for chemical analysis. 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.

People have been making beautiful decorative objects from beautiful mother-of-pearl chambers for many years. 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 met such sea ​​life, like the nautilus (mollusk), we can say that it 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 photo

(lat. Nautilus) is a cephalopod, a direct relative of the octopus. They are well adapted to the depths of seas and oceans. The history of its appearance on Earth dates back to the Paleozoic era (about 500 million years ago). In general, there are 6 species of cephalopods. Until now, two of which are considered extinct. The most famous and largest of all species is Nautilus pompilius. Its second name is the imperial nautilus.

Nautiluses are especially popular because of their interesting shell, which has a spiral shape. The diameter of the shell can be 23-25 ​​cm. The mollusk uses its shell not only as a shelter, but also as a means of transportation. It is divided by transverse partitions into 35-38 chambers. As a rule, the mollusk is always located in the very last chamber. All other chambers of the shell are filled with water or gas, therefore they are considered non-living and serve as a hydrostatic device for the nautilus.

A cephalopod moves using its shell. While diving to the bottom, the chambers are actively filled with water. In the event that it needs to float to the surface, the nautilus with all its might pushes out the water formed in the shell with the help of tentacles and rises to the top. As the animal grows and becomes larger, the number of its chambers also increases, so each time it moves to the outermost compartment of its shell.

The internal structure of mollusks consists of a head and a body. The leg, which is common to all species, is thoroughly modified. The part of the leg located at the back has been transformed into a conical tube that leads into the mantle cavity. The legs are leaf-shaped with wide soles and curled edges. Using its legs, the mollusk slowly crawls on the bottom or rises and swims with the current.

Despite the fact that the shell of a cephalopod can reach large sizes, its structure is very fragile. Therefore, the mollusk does not go deeper than 500 m under water and prefers to live close to the surface. Otherwise, its shells may crack due to strong pressure. This mollusk feeds on plants and carrion. It looks for its prey near coral reefs, at a depth of 20 to 100 m. It can starve without eating food for about a month.

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 the Sverdlovsk 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 Bananarama. 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 the last song (“Chained by the same 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” (who, by the way, greatly fueled interest in the work of “Nautilus” among the broad masses), was a great friend of the group back 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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Nautiluses(lat. Nautilus) is a genus of cephalopods. This is the only modern genus of the subclass of nautiloids (in other systems the genus Allonautilus is also distinguished) and the only modern cephalopods with an external chambered 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. The inside of the shell is mother-of-pearl.

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

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