The prototype of the "Nautilus" in "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea": a "living fossil" in the sea with a very long lifespan

In the science fiction novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", there is a fictional submarine named Nautilus, which was the only biological submarine in the world at that time. In the deep sea of ​​the Pacific Ocean, there lives an ancient mollusk named Nautilus, which has a history of hundreds of millions of years and is a first-class protected animal in China, known as the "living fossil" in the ocean.

The Nautilus belongs to the cephalopod class in the phylum Mollusca and is a distant relative of modern octopuses and squids. The entire shell is smooth and like a curled disc, shaped like the curved beak of a parrot, hence the name "Nautilus". It is the oldest species of molluscs in existence and an important material for studying biological evolution, paleontology and paleoclimate. Its unique partitions and air chambers, as well as the body tube structure connecting them, plus eight dancing tentacles, constitute its special biological structure that allows it to swim freely in the ocean and dive deep into the seabed. It has thus become a model of bionics for humans to build submarines.

Dennis, the first saucer-shaped submersible in human history, was inspired by the diving method of the Nautilus. The shell of the Nautilus is divided into multiple chambers, and its flesh occupies only one of them near the mouth, called the "living chamber". The remaining empty chambers will be filled with water and air. When it needs to move, the Nautilus uses a tube to push gas into the chamber, allowing water to spray out quickly and propel it to move. The Dennis submersible learned from the Nautilus and also designed a tube that can absorb and spray water.

The Nautilus has made a great contribution to the Industrial Revolution and astronomy due to its unique shape and growth lines. Two American geographers, based on their research on Nautilus fossils and after making precise calculations and comparisons of the growth lines of the Nautilus, proposed an extremely bold astronomical insight: the moon is moving away from us and will become darker and darker.

The inspiration that Nautilus has given to mankind is more than that. In recent years, there are more and more designs inspired by Nautilus, such as Nautilus bionic architecture and Nautilus bionic audio.

architecture

stairs

Audio

sofa

Nautilus species were found in almost all oceans in the world for more than 400 million years from the Ordovician Period of the Paleozoic Era to the end of the Mesozoic Era. However, they are now almost extinct, with only two genera and six species remaining in the deep seas of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Even though nautilus is of great significance to humans and as rare as giant pandas, many people do not realize the importance of protecting this species. Despite the introduction of the Aquatic Wildlife Resources Protection Law, illegal fishing and trading of nautilus have continued despite repeated prohibitions due to profit-driven activities.

In the course of the evolution of life on Earth, there have been several outbreaks and extinctions of life. This is the law of natural selection in nature. However, according to the estimates of the extinction rate of species made by the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, most of the animals and plants on Earth are in dire straits. We don’t know when the next mass extinction of life will come. The only thing we can do is to cherish the results of the 4.6 billion years of evolution of the Earth, maintain the diversity balance between species, and keep the entire nature prosperous and harmonious. Only in this way can mankind have a longer-term future.