typhlonectes: “ Cephalopod Week: Argonauts (family Argonautidae) 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...
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typhlonectes: “ Cephalopod Week: Argonauts (family Argonautidae) 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...
Zoom Info
typhlonectes: “ Cephalopod Week: Argonauts (family Argonautidae) 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...
Zoom Info
typhlonectes: “ Cephalopod Week: Argonauts (family Argonautidae) 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...
Zoom Info

typhlonectes:

Cephalopod Week:  Argonauts (family Argonautidae)

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).

photo by Bernd Hoffman | WIkimedia CC and illustrations by Carl Chun