It is an ancient lineage of the animal world, baptized as a “living fossil”, because its characteristic shell appears in the fossil record during a significant period of 500 million years. It has been discovered by the biologist Peter Ward, from the University of Washington (USA) in the South Pacific, in a historic moment for science, because apart from being considered one of the rarest animals on the planet, it had not been been seen in over 30 years .
The creature in question is Allonautilus scrobiculatus , a particular species of nautilus (“sailor” in Greek), which had previously been found in the 1980s near Ndrova Island, in Papua New Guinea, by Peter Ward himself and his team. “Before this, only two humans had seen allonautilus scrobiculatus . My colleague Bruce Saunders from Bryn Mawr College and I, ”explains Ward.
At the time, the analysis of the samples collected in 1984 revealed that both the gills, the jaws and the shape of their shell or even the male reproductive structures, differed significantly from other known species of nautilus .
“Some characteristics of the nautilus such as its shell that give it the label of ‘living fossil’ have not changed for a long time, but other parts have. It has a thick hairy, slimy covering on its shell . When we first saw this, we were in awe, ”says Ward.
To achieve this new sighting under the sea, scientists designed a bait filled with fish and chicken meat located about 100-400 meters below the surface . They recorded all the surrounding activity for the next 12 hours, discovering how an allonautilus approached the bait; In case this was already surprising, another nautilus came for the same reason, both clashing for access to the bait.
