Nautilus Shell

The wonderfully shaped nautilus shell in its natural state is decorated with brown tiger like stripes.

Related to the octopus, squid and clam, the spiralled nautilus shell is divided into chambers with the animal occupying the outermost chamber. 

A newly hatched nautilus begins life with about four chambers and develops an average of 30 chambers by adulthood. The inner chambers are filled with gas and help the nautilus to maintain neutral buoyancy. By adding liquid to the chambers it is then able to dive. 

The nautilus is also considered to be a "living fossil" as they have undergone little change in over 400 million years. 

They dominated the ancient seas before the rise of fishes and appeared about 265 million years before the first dinosaurs. In prehistoric times there were about 10,000 different species of the nautilus, but only five species have survived to the present day.

It is common to the Philippine and Palau Islands.