The range of the chambered nautilus encompasses much of the south Pacific; It has been found near reefs and on the seafloor off the coasts of Australia, Japan, and Micronesia.

Chambered nautiluses, again like all members of the genus, have a pair of rhinophores located near each eye which detect chemicals, and use olfaction and chemotaxis to find their food.

[4][not verified in body] The oldest fossils of the species are known from Early Pleistocene sediments deposited off the coast of Luzon in the Philippines.

[1] Because of their oceanic habitat, studies of their life cycle have primarily been based on captive animals and their eggs have never been seen in the wild.

The distribution of N. p. pompilius covers the Andaman Sea east to Fiji and southern Japan south to the Great Barrier Reef.

[14] This was found during research done in New Caledonia on nautiluses whose shell chamber fluid densities were tested at various depths, weeks apart.

[14] Generally speaking, chambered nautiluses inhabit a depth around 1000 feet, although further tests demonstrated that they can, and do, dive deeper.

Small natural history collections were common in mid-19th-century Victorian homes, and chambered nautilus shells were popular decorations.

The chambered nautilus is the title and subject of a poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes, in which he admires the "ship of pearl" and the "silent toil/That spread his lustrous coil/Still, as the spiral grew/He left the past year's dwelling for the new."

Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!