 FIRSTLY WHAT IS THE

NAUTILUS?
The ‘NAUTILUS’ is a pelagic marine mollusc of the
cephalopod family ‘Nautilidae’. The nautilus is the sole
extant family of the superfamily ‘Nautilaceae’ and of its
smaller but near equal suborder ‘Nautilina’. It comprises
six living species in two genera, the type of which is the
genus ‘Nautilus’.
Nautilus is recognized scientifically as ;
 Phylum: Mollusca
 Family: Nautilidae
 Class: Cephalopoda
 Order: Nautilida
 Kingdom: Animalia
 Subclass: Nautiloidea

T
YPICAL IMAGES OF THE NAUTILUS
 ABOUT THE NAUTILUS?

CROSS SECTION OF THE NAUTILUS

Amongst all underwater creatures, the curious-looking

nautilus is the one creature that fascinates the most. The
Nautilus is known as the ‘living fossil’ due to the fact that
it has remained largely unchanged for almost 400 million
years. Found in abundance in prehistoric times, the
nautilus’ numbers have dwindled and only a handful of its
species remains today.

The nautilus which gets its name from the Greek word
meaning ‘sailor’ is a mollusc and a member of the
 Cephalopod family. It is closely related to other
cephalopods such as the squid, cuttlefish, and octopus.

And just like the other members of its family, the Nautilus
too uses water jet expulsion to propel in quick bursts across
the ocean.

Part of the mystery shrouding the life and habits of this

prehistoric creature is the fact that it usually inhabits
depths of about 300 m, rising to around 100 m at night
only for feeding, mating or laying eggs. It is known that
the average lifespan of a nautilus is around 20 years, and it
lays its eggs on rocks in shallow waters.

 MORE ABOUT THE NAUTILUS?

 FEEDING PATTERN

Being predators, they feed mainly on shrimp, small fish

and crustaceans, which are captured by the tentacles. Due
to the limited energy expended in swimming, they need
only eat once a month.
  SHELL

TYPICAL IMAGE OF NAUTILUS SHELL

‘Nautilidae’ both extant and extinct, are characterized by

involute or more or less convolute shells that are generally
smooth, with compressed or depressed whorl sections,
straight to sinuous sutures, and a tubular, generally central
siphuncle. They are trapped mostly for

Their attractive shells and also for the shell’s inner layer,
called nacre,
The beauty and smoothness of these shells makes it widely
used in creation of jewellery as well as applications in
architecture.

Writers, artists, architects and engineers have long

marvelled at the nautilus’s beauty and swimming
abilities. Unlike its colour-changing cousins, though, the
soft-bodied nautilus lives inside its hard external shell. The
shell itself has many closed interior chambers or
“compartments.”

The animal resides in the shell’s largest chamber, while the

other chambers function like the ballast tanks of a
submarine. This is the secret to how the nautilus swims.

 PRINCIPLE OF THE NAUTILUS

The tissue in a canal called the ‘siphuncle’ [sigh-funk-el]
connects all of the interior chambers. As seawater pumps
through the living chamber, the nautilus expels water by
pulling its body into the chamber, thereby creating jet
propulsion to thrust itself backwards and to make turns.
While swimming up or down through the water column,
the nautilus uses its siphuncle to suck fluid into, or draw

It out of, the smaller sealed chambers, allowing the animal

to adjust its overall buoyancy.

 WHERE IS THE NAUTILUS SHELL

FOUND?
According to fossil records, animals similar to the
chambered nautilus have existed for about 500 million

Years and the NOAA Fisheries funded a University of

Washington researcher to conduct population studies of the
nautilus in Fiji and American Samoa. This research
provides a clearer picture of nautilus abundance in those
areas.
Nautiluses are found only in the waters of the indo-pacific
and inhabit the deep slopes of coral reefs. They are quite
difficult to find and the declining numbers of the Nautilus
has been attributed to the harvesting of this creature by
man for its stunning shell.
However, the first and oldest fossil of Chambered Nautilus
displayed at Philippine National Museum and is still to
present date.

These shells are gotten by either fishing or by sea diving

to stack up quantities of them at the specific marked
locations

 GREEK ARCHITECTURE
The Greek architecture is the architecture of the Greek
(Hellenic) speaking people located on the main lands of the
Peloponnese, Aegean and Anatolia.
Architecture best known for its temples many of which are
found throughout the region noting that the ‘Parthenon’ is
a prime example.

Before coming to the influence of the nautilus shell on this

Greek architecture
Establish first that the Greek architecture is defined in
three orders:-
 DORIC ORDER
 IONIC ORDER
 CORINTHIAN ORDER

TYPICAL IMAGE OF THE ORDERS

The Greek architecture (mostly ionic order) particularly the

Parthenon seemingly is influenced by the:-
 NAUTILUS SHELL SACRED
GEOMETRY

The spiral of the nautilus is not just any spiral. Measuring

it reveals that it conforms to the shape of the Golden Ratio
spiral, what is known as a "sacred geometry".

It is considered sacred because it can be found in a wide

variety of things in nature, such as the shape of our galaxy,
of hurricanes, in the arrangements of sunflower seeds in
the flower, in cauliflower, and pine cones, and as this is
concerned ,structures.
It is also sacred because it is based on the Golden Ratio,
which is one of life's great mysteries because it can be
found in all living things.

THE NAUTILUS SACRED GEOMETRY

We tend to think that things in the natural world are all

different and grow in a free-form way. The idea that the
Golden Ratio can be found in all living things is
fascinating and mysterious because it seems to suggest that
our natural world is not as random or irregular as it seems,
but instead can be explained in the logic of numbers and
mathematical equations.
And furthermore, it is intriguing that all living things and
some structures have this ratio in common and are
therefore inherently linked or somehow parts of a greater
whole nautilus shell geometry.

To understand this a little better, let us first know

 WHAT IS THE GOLDEN RATIO?

The Golden Ratio is based on the Fibonacci series, which

is a series of numbers where the first two numbers add up
to the succeeding number, like this: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13,
21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, etc.

You can arrive at the Golden Ratio by dividing each

number by the one before it and the further you go along
the progression of numbers, the closer you get to the
Golden Ratio number, which is 1.61803398...

Like this: 3/5 = 1.6666, 13/8 = 1.6250, 233/144 = 1.6180.

Let it be reiterated that this ratio (1.61803398..) can be
found in every life form, from our DNA, to many plants,
the human skeleton, shells and the proportions in animals.

Plato called this number "the key for the universe

physics" and mysteriously, studies have shown that when
this ratio is incorporated into artwork and architecture,
humans seem to find it more beautiful and elegant.

That the ratio is found in all living things implies that it is

part of a "blueprint" of the universe, something that
underlies the foundation of all living things and which
serves to connect them to each other and to a greater
whole.

 NAUTILUS SHELL SYMBOLISM

AND
INFLUENCE ON GREEK
ARCHITECTURE
As a symbol, the chambered nautilus is a powerful
metaphor for one's spiritual evolution.
Because of its elegant and alluring shape, the Greeks
adopted the nautilus as a symbol of perfection and
beauty.
Nature that is the physical expression of the Fibonacci
whole number series (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 . . .). This system
of natural proportionality had many applications in Greek
Architecture, from the perspective of expanding the
awareness of the link as architects to the systems of nature
as well as the aesthetical curves in the Greek columns and
structures( mostly ionic).s