Jeanne and the Argonauts: Unwrapping the Secret Life of the Paper Nautilus

Solving the Mystery of the Argonaut’s Shell

Sicily. Photo by Samuel Ferrara on Unsplash

Pale and brittle, its surface rippled like a snap-frozen ocean, the paper nautilus shell is familiar both as a curio and a collector’s item. But the animal that occupies it — a type of octopus called Argonauta — is not as well-known. For two thousand years, ever since Aristotle wrote about them…