Half a billion years the nautilus inhabited the oceans of the world. Time and again the living beings of Earth changed around them: emerging, evolving, and then so often vanishing into non-existence. This inevitable process seemed almost irrelevant to the nautilus, as if they resided outside the cycle. But then as if the gods themselves deemed it time to finally punish this evolutionary hubris, they emerged. The slaughter was relentless, and the once-ubiquitous nautiloids fell. Now huddled in an isolated patch of water, they hide and pray that the voracious monsters that so nearly eliminated their entire lineage will never discover a passage into their final refuge.

Inspired by this PBS Eons short video on the rise and near downfall of the nautilus: https://youtube.com/watch?v=3vQ55ToQeWI&pp=ygURcGJzIGVvbnMgbmF1dGlsdXM%3D