Gift Shop Purchase

Every gift shop within ten miles of a beach seems to have a supply of beautiful nautilus shells for sale. You'll recognize it on the creature on the left-hand side of the photo below. But the one on the right shows how abominable these guys look while still living. It's like some horrible, tentacled hell-beast that would have been conjured up for a comic book.















The nautilus, which sports as many as 90 tentacles, is is the only remaining member of what once were the largest and fiercest predators of the ocean. Ya, I think even Spiderman might balk at having to take one of these on.

See? That shell you see hanging from the gift shop ceiling for $25 isn't so pretty anymore.

Oh, and by the way: some varieties of these little killers are endangered, so don't by those shells anyway, just on principle. The same goes for dried-up sea horses. In fact, don't buy any shells or dead fish at a gift shop. Stick to the lighthouse figurines and cheesy photo frames.

Thanks for the photo, Matt.