Nautilus belauensis

Nautilus belauensis
Nautilus belauensis in Palau
CITES Appendix II (CITES)
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Subclass: Nautiloidea
Order: Nautilida
Family: Nautilidae
Genus: Nautilus
Species:
N. belauensis
Binomial name
Nautilus belauensis
Saunders, 1981

The Palau nautilus (Nautilus belauensis) is a nautiloid mainly found off of Palau in the Western Carolines. It can be found on fore reef slopes, at depths of 95m-504m (311'-1,653'), though typically preferring a range of 150m-300m (492'-984'), where water temperatures stay around 16.6 °C (61.88°F) and do not go much lower than 9.4 °C (48.92°F). N. belauensis are highly mobile, epibenthic scavengers and opportunistic predators which rely mostly on scent for finding food. They are active both diurnally and nocturnally within their preferred depth ranges, although most shallow-water incursions are, generally, nocturnal events that coincide with greatly diminished fish activities.