DURBAN - A family walking along the shore in Umkomaas, south of Durban, came across a “perfectly preserved argonaut egg case”.
On March 17, Andries Meyer was walking along the beach at Umkomaas with his wife and daughter Lily when Lily came across the egg case.
The South African Association for Marine Biological Research’s (Saambr) Ann Kunz said the argonaut egg case belonged to a female pelagic octopus.
“How we know that it belonged to a female is easy as it is only the female argonauts that secrete these ‘shells’. The males, that are really small in comparison to the females are no bigger than a few centimetres. Argonauts are also known by the more popular name, paper nautilus,” Kunz said.
She said the image showed the paper-thin intricately patterned egg case of the brown argonaut.
“These egg case ‘shells’ serve as a brood chamber for her eggs and assist her with buoyancy by trapping a bubble of air in the shell,” Kunz said.
“Both the male and female argonauts are known to attach themselves to jellyfish and other floating objects which they then use as a ‘hunting platform’ to strike unsuspecting crustaceans, molluscs, salps and smaller jellyfish.”
Kunz thanked the Meyer family for sharing their discovery with Saambr.
Daily News