ZooWeird 11

A doggerel series about odd or little-known animals.

Chambered nautilus: the most famous, large and common species of nautilus. It’s a mollusk and a close relative of the octopus, snail, squid and clam. It is considered to be a living fossil since it has remained virtually unchanged for the past 400 million years. The chambered nautilus can be found in tropical waters that extend from the Andaman Sea east to Fiji and from southern Japan to the Great Barrier Reef. This weird creature's habitat usually lies in locations where the coral reef slopes go down into deep waters.

To read more, follow link ...Read more

There is a better poem about

This nautilus, you know. I read

It years ago. And there’s no doubt

That Holmses’ crafted lines instead

Could well illuminate your day.

“Build thee more stately mansions,” Holmes

Then wrote about his soul. No way

Could lines like mine become such poems.

No, mine are lines ephemeral

That float like seeds of cottonwood

On summer air, and most are full

Of things and thoughts a poet should

Abjure. But now I’m dreaming of

That nautilus. His chambered shell.

Such lines as those are verbal love—

They keep me living, if not well!

Link to Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem.