BajaNomad

Paper nautilus - PHOTO ATTACHED

Osprey - 2-13-2012 at 03:32 PM

The weather is great right now on the East Cape so I took a beach walk today and found a perfect, 5 inch Paper Nautilus.

Been all over the web trying to find out a good way to clean it -- no joy yet. The owner was already dead and fell out when I picked it up but left behind a lot of material. I'm afraid to follow cursory google instructions to soak in 50/50 bleach-water cause that sounds like it might damage the shell.

Anybody found one, had to clean it?

[Edited on 2-14-2012 by Osprey]

Alan - 2-13-2012 at 04:25 PM

Is it fresh enough to place on an anthill and let them do the work?

Russ - 2-13-2012 at 04:30 PM

Wow that is a nice shell. Never found one with the octopus inside. Maybe the bleach would work or a detergent and a soft brush. Good luck that's a prize. Keep an eye out cuz this is the time they float in.

windgrrl - 2-13-2012 at 04:56 PM

Hola - found several of these last year and again last week.

Four of those I found had no eggs inside, so I just gently rinsed the sand out in the ocean, dried them outside and then stored them in plastic food storage containers to protect them. One had a yellow mass inside and I rinsed the mass out in the ocean thinking it was the eggs as the paper nautilus is actually an egg case that the octopus uses to protect the eggs. As you may know...these amazing creatures are not nautilus nor shells nor paper - just amazing mariners.

Ken Bondy - 2-13-2012 at 04:59 PM

Jorge
I can't help with processing the shell but I was interested in your use of the term "no joy". Are (were) you a pilot?
++Ken++

Skipjack Joe - 2-13-2012 at 05:20 PM

Jorge,

If you bleach it, it will lose any subtle color it may still have. I'm sure you know that. I would suspect that most nautiluses found on a beach have already lost it due to the sun's rays.

Osprey - 2-13-2012 at 05:59 PM

Hi, thanks to all. Just after I posted I rinsed it out with warm water and all the material inside just washed away down the sink.

Skip, it was still in the water when I walked by and the octopus was in it but dead so no bleaching from the sun.

Ken, not a pilot, just borrowing a areo term cause it says it all.

I was very surprised to be there when the thing was there. I never win anything. If I held the winning lottery ticket in California it would be nullified because I can't prove worthiness.

woody with a view - 2-13-2012 at 06:07 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Osprey
I was very surprised to be there when the thing was there. I never win anything. If I held the winning lottery ticket in California it would be nullified because I can't prove worthiness.


the beginnings of the next story?:light::lol:

Udo - 2-13-2012 at 06:34 PM

What I have done in the past is just to boil it, just to get rid of the aroma.

Nautilus photo

Osprey - 2-13-2012 at 07:13 PM



Nautilus Nomad.jpg - 36kB

Skipjack Joe - 2-13-2012 at 08:13 PM

What a great find.


My ex mother in law loved this book. I'm sure you've read it:

Gift from the Sea

Cardon Man - 2-14-2012 at 07:16 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Alan
Is it fresh enough to place on an anthill and let them do the work?


The best suggestion yet. Ants would leave it clean.

woody with a view - 2-14-2012 at 10:48 AM

that thing is awesome.

Scientists solve millenia-old mystery about the argonaut

windgrrl - 2-14-2012 at 10:52 AM

Discover mag article with video re: work done by Australian scientists:
http://tinyurl.com/24f66u9

Nautilus

tehag - 2-14-2012 at 04:40 PM

Osprey, what a nice thread. Windgirl, thanks for the article.

Ken Bondy - 2-14-2012 at 04:57 PM

One of my fondest diving memories was seeing a live chambered nautilus in Papua New Guinea. I am sure they are related to the paper nautilus:

BajaBlanca - 2-14-2012 at 05:05 PM

oh my goodness, what amazing photos !! yup...this is a superb thread !! more photos, more photos ....

windgrrl - 2-14-2012 at 07:40 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Ken Bondy
One of my fondest diving memories was seeing a live chambered nautilus in Papua New Guinea. I am sure they are related to the paper nautilus:

...not paper, nor nautilus, nor shell, but an argonaut.

"The chambered nautilus was later named after the argonaut, but belongs to a different order, the Nautilida"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argonaut_%28animal%29;)

LaRibereņa - 2-15-2012 at 07:28 AM

Congrats, Jorge! Lovely one

better photo

Osprey - 2-15-2012 at 08:10 AM



dbl color 1 Nomad.jpg - 14kB

tripledigitken - 2-15-2012 at 08:12 AM

Thanks for posting. That is quite a find.

Ken Bondy - 2-15-2012 at 08:16 AM

Gorgeous Jorge!! What a magnificent creature!!

wsdunc - 2-15-2012 at 03:37 PM

Nice

24baja - 2-16-2012 at 02:50 PM

I found one of these on the beach in front of our house in BOLA, I will get a photo of it and post it later (it is in BOLA). I had never seen one before, I am amazed at what I find on the beaches, what we catch when fishing and what I see everytime I swim there.....I love BOLA!

dtbushpilot - 2-16-2012 at 05:31 PM

Jorge, I found one bobbing in the surf just North of Rancho Leonero a couple of days ago. It had a small octopus living in it that had a couple of it's legs "trimmed". It was still quite alive so I left it alone. unfortunately I didn't have a camera with me.....dt

Elena La Loca - 2-17-2012 at 04:27 PM

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!

Oliver Wendell Holmes "Chambered Nautilus"