Catalog Number:
31578
Object/Specimen Description:

This specimen is a Chambered Nautilus shell. The shell is white with orange/brown wavy lines on both sides of the shell. The shell measures approximately 7.5 cm x 5 cm.

Specimen Count:
1
Locality:
Oceania Region (NZ, Australia, Samoa, Fiji, Micronesia, Melanesia)
Collecting Locality:
North Pacific Ocean, Palau
Cabinet:
09
Drawer/Shelf:
06
Upper Level Taxonomy:
Animalia, Mollusca, Cephalopoda, Nautiloidea, Nautilida, Nautilidae

Most mollusks have a "radula", a ribbon made of chitin with rows of teeth (denticles). The radula is always used to feed, but how it is used varies widely. Radulas are specialized to the diets of mollusks, which range from fully carnivorous to entirely herbivorous. The radula may be used to filter, scrape, crush, cut, or stab, depending what food is eaten. Predatory murexes use the radula to drill holes into other mollusks, whereas limpets use it to scrape algae off rocks. The shape of the radula and denticles can be used to figure out what mollusk it came from. Nudibranchs that feed on corals have long, skinny denticles for scraping the thin layer of flesh off the coral skeleton. Queen conchs have a comb-like radula with thousands of tiny denticles for filtering small food from the water. Regardless, as denticles wear away, they are continuously replaced from top to bottom.