Chambered nautilus
Amazing fact
The chambered nautilus has tentacles without suckers.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The chambered nautilus has tentacles without suckers.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Chambered nautilus
- Scientific name
- Nautilus pompilius
- Japanese name
- オウムガイ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Class
- Cephalopoda
- Order
- Nautilida
- Family
- Nautilidae
- Genus
- Nautilus
Known as a 'living fossil', it is a mollusk in the cephalopod group.
Its shell is divided into chambers, and a tube running through them releases gas to keep it buoyant.
Its eyes have no lens, and it relies on its sense of smell to find the fish and crabs it eats.
How the Chambered nautilus lives
It is active at night and rises closer to the surface. It also eats dead animals. It swims by contracting the muscles of its funnel. When it is not swimming, it pulls itself along rocks with its tentacles.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Diet
- Fish, crabs, and carrionUniversity of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
- Range
- Indian Ocean to western Pacific, Thailand to western Samoa, and Australia鳥羽水族館
Where the Chambered nautilus has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- オウムガイ
- 简体中文
- 珍珠鹦鹉螺
- 繁體中文
- 鸚鵡螺
- 한국어
- 황제앵무조개
- Español
- Nautilo perlado
- Français
- Nautile flammé
- Deutsch
- Gemeines Perlboot
- Português (Brasil)
- Náutilo-imperador
- Italiano
- Nautilus
- العربية
- نوتيلوس شائع
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Linne
- Tiếng Việt
- Ốc anh vũ
- Русский
- Обыкновенный наутилус
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — オウムガイChecked: 2026-11-03
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Nautilus pompiliusChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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