Intriguing: Eight-year-old Charlotte admires one of the paper nautilus shells a neighbour found on the beach near her Torquay home this week.
ERIN PEARSON
ROUGH weather has washed up a rare deep-sea species on a Torquay beach, according to a marine centre manager.
Queenscliff Marine Discovery Centre’s Philip Armato said “unusually large” paper nautilus shells washed ashore at White’s Beach.
Mr Armato said “storm events” were probably washing ashore the intact yet fragile shells.
“These are big paper nautiluses. You wouldn’t generally get those shells that size holding their integrity,” he said.
“Normally they don’t just wash up on the beach because when the animal dies they normally just collapse.”
Mr Armato said the shells were traditionally softer and smaller than the specimens washed up early this week.
The paper nautilus, or Argonauta nodosus, is a member of the cephalopod family, which includes squid and octopus. The animal is also commonly called an argonaut.
“Their shells are typically white in colour with a crinkle-cut-like casing and hollow inside,” Mr Armato said.
“They live in the open ocean and only females produce the shells, which act as an egg case. This species generally inhabits oceanic waters but occasionally moves into coastal shallows in large numbers to release eggs or die.
“They do pop up on beaches every now and then but to have them this size and still intact means they are an unusual find.”
