Paper Nautilus Shell & Urchin Species

Jim and Tim each found one of these beauties on Punta Salina, just across the way from San Evaristo. They are very fragile and ours have remained in tact thankfully due to an empty cottage cheese container and cottonballs. We knew absolutely nothing about these doodads, so researched facts about them on the internet. They are an egg casing secreted from a female octopus-like creature called an argonaut. The female remains in the shell guarding her eggs and hatched young until they are old enough to swim away and then the casing is discarded. They are a pelagic creature, meaning they live in open water and not down by the ocean floor. This may be the reason their delicate shells can be found intact. The Grooved Heart Urchins are the exoskeletons of the once alive creatures.