Though this creature is also called the “Paper Nautilus”, it is not actually a Nautilus, but is instead a kind of octopus. The thin papery looking “shell” is an egg case made of calcite, which the octopus uses to brood eggs. They also maintain an air pocket in the case to help them stay afloat.
Argonaut are pelagic, meaning they occupy open waters, and are found in tropical and sub-tropical waters around the globe. They feed on other pelagic creatures like crustaceans, jellyfish, salps, and swimming mollusks; which they subdue with a venomous saliva.
As one would suspect, males do not have the egg case/shell (see the last 2 images).
Put away the garlic and wooden stakes, this is one vampire that doesn’t have much of a bite.
Neither a vampire nor a squid, the vampire squid, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, prefers to hang out in low-oxygen ocean zones such as the Monterey Submarine Canyon, rather than Transylvania, waiting patiently for its next meal. Despite their sinister appearance—and their scientific name, which means “vampire squid from hell”—these deep sea cephalopods are scavengers. Two sticky filaments float suspended in the water column to catch “marine snow,” a mixture of poop, dead organic material and mucus, that rains down from above—the perfect draculamari appetizer for these denizens of the deep.
Researchers have caught on video for the first time a giant squid at 750 m below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. The researchers estimated it was at least 3-3.7m long. The video was filmed on 19 June on an expedition funded NOAA.
