ARGONAUTA • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Argonauta

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

Listen

noun

Argonauta n. (Zool.) A genus of Cephalopoda. The shell is called paper nautilus or paper sailor. Note: The animal has much resemblance to an Octopus. It has eight arms, two of which are expanded at the end and clasp the shell, but are never elevated in the air for sails as was formerly supposed. The creature swims beneath the surface by means of a jet of water, like other cephalopods. The male has no shell, and is much smaller than the female. See Hectocotylus.

See images of 'Argonauta'

Etymology of 'Argonauta'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Argonauta" Quotes from Famous Books

... kind of Nautilus, called by Linneus, Argonauta, whose shell has but one cell; of this animal Pliny affirms, that having exonerated its shell by throwing out the water, it swims upon the surface, extending a web of wonderful tenuity, and bending back two of ...

— The Botanic Garden - A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: The Economy of Vegetation • Erasmus Darwin