Picture by Lealand Jonhson
A dead fossil, right? Wrong! The chambered nautilus is known as the "living fossil". The chambered nautilus is a mollusk. A mollusk is a boneless creature with a soft body. Snails, clams, and oysters are also mollusks. It is also a member of the cephalopod family along with the octopus and the squid. It's shell has about 30 rainbow-colored chambers. The rainbow colors are asubstance that is called nacre or mother-of-pearl. Since the chambers are rainbow-colored, the chambered nautilus is sometimes called a pearly nautilus. When the chambered nautilus outgrows it's old chamber it adds a new one, closing off the old one. As it does this the shell begins to take form as a spiral. The old chambers are filled with gas composed.