''Nautilus vitiensis'' is a species of

nautilus A nautilus (; ) is any of the various species within the cephalopod family Nautilidae. This is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and the suborder Nautilina. It comprises nine living species in two genera, the type genus, ty ...

native to the waters of

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

. It was described as a separate species in 2023. An interesting discovery regarding this new species was revealed by the geographic component of this species taxonomy. This species, along with two other newly discovered species, exist in large (Larger than the Pre-discovered species) island groups separated by at least 200 km of deep water from other Nautilus populations. Other Nautilus species shells implode at depths greater than 800m, leading this discovery of three species to stand out from pre-existing Nautilus species.

References

Nautiluses Cephalopods described in 2023 Cephalopods of Oceania {{Nautiloidea-stub