Ward told NBC News in an email that the shell serves as protection against predator’s sharp teeth from having a grip.
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Ward also says that overfishing or nautilus mining can cause their extinction where it is crucial to protect them since they have already survived two mass extinctions from over 500 million years of existence. It’s a species of nautilus – or creature with a light external spiral shell and many short tentacles around the mouth – called Allonautilus scrobiculatus. A colleague spotted the first specimen in 1984, and Ward saw another a few weeks after. In fact, the wildlife researcher suspects it only populates the waters around Papua New Guinea and that, because of pollution, it is now in danger of going extinct.
No other sighting as been reported until Ward and a team of researchers came to Ndrova Island to research nautiluses. The University of Washington professor had seen what he considers one of the world’s rarest animals, a remote encounter that may become even more infrequent if illegal fishing practices continue.
What are the chances of finding a super-rare creature in the wild twice in your life – 30 years apart? The rarity of this nautilus as well as its difference from its cousins, support biologists theories of how immensely different, genetically and ecologically, one species is from another simply due to their location. It was soon joined by another nautilus, and the two fought for access to the bait until a sunfish arrived on the scene. The Allonautilus have shell that comes with hairy, slimy material.
When we first saw that, we were astounded.
Last July, some of the creatures were captured and was brought back to the surface for further observations for a temporary time with utmost care since the nautiluses are very sensitive to varying heat temperatures. Through these studies, they have learned that most nautilus populations are isolated from one another because they can only inhabit a narrow range of ocean depth.
“For the next two hours, the sunfish just kept whacking them with its tail”,
Ward was quoted as saying in an article Tuesday from the University of Washington, where he’s a professor of biology.
Ward and his colleagues used this information to determine the age and sex of each animal, as well as the diversity of each nautilus population in the South Pacific. The creatures were fished from 600 feet below surface since the tiny animals do not cope well with warm water.
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Rare species of nautilus spotted near Papua New Guinea for the first time in 3 decades. “This could be the rarest animal in the world”. They were not expecting to see it again though.
