14 DAY TRIAL // The Birch Aquarium at Scripps, in San Diego, has just announced the arrival of a baby nautilus. Apparently, the tiny creature is the first of its kind to have ever been born at this wildlife sanctuary.
According to Zoo Borns, the egg from which the baby nautilus emerged this past Wednesday was laid in November 2012.
The egg took several months to develop into a nautilus. What's more, it appears that, despite being fully formed, the creature needed a few weeks to hatch.
As wildlife researchers explain, hatching is a fairly slow process in the case of nautiluses. However, there is no denying that waiting for this little rascal to come out of its shell was worth it.
The same source informs us that nautiluses are related to octopuses, squid and cuttlefish.
They have been around for about 500 million years, and they have remained largely unchanged this entire time.