Nautilus pearl

[GemGeek]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything goes well with the blister.

 

[SteveM]

Photos already in hand (original advice was received as the source was waiting to board a plane to meet his diver).

Quite provocative!

 

[GemGeek]

It looks like a little sinuous serpent is in there!

 

[SteveM]

Hopefully we will be able to obtain the shell and have it examined. It would be interesting to know if the 'intruder' is interred within the septum or if it was nacre-coated later. The mantle in that area is thought only to secrete nacre during septum construction, so this might have significant scientific value.

 

[lisa c]

redX vs photo

redX vs photo

That's a beautiful photo, and yes, I can see it!

Yea!! So can I!

Of course, now I wonder what glories I missed by seeing only the Xs.

Hey, better some than none. I wonder what magic you performed.

This is edge of the seat stuff now!

 

[SteveM]

The new Nautilus shell with blister is secured and on its way?

 

[Valeria101]

Talk about perfect timing!

 

[SteveM]

The new shell with blister is in hand. The blister is located in the final body chamber of a mature Nautilus, so it would have had a period of up to several years in which to form. I will be taking it to Peter Ward at the University of Washington for X-Ray and for his opinion regarding its potential for shedding light on biomineralization in the posterior (dorsal) Nautilus mantle.

Now let's circle back to a pivotal moment in this thread, about halfway through to this point:

18 pages later…

Separation of pearl and shell at origin was an unfortunate decision, however if the pearl were determined to be a blister pearl and not a fully formed pearl with a conveniently-photogenic attachment point, arguments would be strong in favor of authenticity. However, upon what now appears to have been an informal initial examination, GIA's Ken Scarratt determined that it was a button pearl with superficial attachment—not nearly as conclusive.

We have just received GIA certificates with their official reports on quite a number of the pearls shown throughout this thread. That particular pearl has come back as 'NATURAL BLISTER PEARL, SALTWATER, SPECIES UNDETERMINED' (can’t blame them for cold feet at this point!).

This result gives added weight to my more recent post:

Below are pearls from prior posts that most strongly come to mind when I think of Nautilus pearls. Top row is the infamous pearl reportedly found attached to a dry shell last November…

All shown pearls certified as natural saltwater, species 'undetermined.'

 

[Marianne]

The plot thickens
Waiting for the next chapter.... and the sun
Marianne

 

[SteveM]

I am writing from a hotel on the Cuesta de Gom?rez in Granada, Spain in the shadows of the Alhambra. We've just spent parts of two days with the world-famous mollusk shell research team of Antonio Checa and Julyan Cartwright. Checa a paleontologist and biologist at the University of Granada, one of Europe's oldest, largest and most respected such institutions. Cartwright is a physicist and theoretician with specialty in natural orders.

To the point:

Under ESEM (environmental spectographic electron microscopy) Checa determined that the vortexed pearls, as well as those pearls I am most confident to be Nautilus (the ?blister? and the ?cooked? pearls in my recent summary post at Pearl-Guide), share in common an aragonite microstructure previously unobserved in pearls.

It will be a long process of discovery to confirm how this observation may relate to the attempt to verify Nautilus ID in pearls.

Stay tuned!

 

[Caitlin]

Brilliant! I am so impressed. This is the test to use for Nautilus!

Your intrepid research and reporting have pushed this to the point where you could locate the correct machine to do the examination and take your samples there. I think you have done the job of bringing Nautilus into the 21st century, with a way to positively ID it! It appears that nautilus is responding to the call. Good work...!

I am so glad you are recording this journey here on P-G. It is a privilege to read it here. This is the second, and more momentous, time Pearl-Guide members have uncovered info in a thread.

Are you going to write some kind of article about this? We will want to put up a copy in our News section.

 

[GemGeek]

Eureka and Hallelujah!!! WOOT! How fun!

 

[CortezPearls]

God's Magnificent Works...when Humans unravel Nature's Most Perplexing Questions we can find BEAUTY traced on every single crystal, in every fractal design. The complexity is mind-boggling, thus this knowledge becomes SACRED and the more we can appreciate what we have been allowed to observe and cherish.
Hallelu-Yah Indeed!!!
Thank you very much for sharing this incredible information with all of us here on the forum Steve

 

[Caitlin]

Anna
Your research skills have benefited us many times on this forum. Even if it is limited to the jewelry photos you find, and it is not limited to those. Thanks so much for being an active member.

 

[SteveM]

Are you going to write some kind of article about this?

I've approached this thread as a sort of living diary, with no idea where things would go. It is an already-written tale (admin: Don't lose it!!). The important writing must be left to the scientists and the journalists.

God's Magnificent Works...when Humans unravel Nature's Most Perplexing Questions we can find BEAUTY traced on every single crystal, in every fractal design. The complexity is mind-boggling, thus this knowledge becomes SACRED and the more we can appreciate what we have been allowed to observe and cherish.

No comment, just wanted to memorialize those words!

 

[pattye]

What a delight to be the fly on the wall!!

 

[Lagoon Island Pearls]

... with no idea where things would go.

It only gets better. An amazing and enviable journey!

 

[SteveM]

Molluscus Abominabilis
I’ve continued to search for alternative explanations to Nautilus for the vortex structure in non-nacreous pearls. A prominent and respected internet source for fine and rare shells and occasional pearls posted a photo of a non-nacreous pearl showing spiral chatoyance pattern. I was able to procure the pearl and a specimen of its purported shell, the gastropod Fusinus Colus.

Occasionally I have utilized circular links such as this when our winding road to Nautilus criss-crosses a particular stream of thought.

The post linked above followed great initial enthusiasm regarding the vortexed specimens, and threw considerable water upon the vortex/spiral feature as a potential visual marker for Nautilus.

During our ESEM session on Tuesday there was not enough time to look at this pearl. It was subsequently analyzed. Upon departing Granada we retrieved the pearl, and were told that its microstructure is consistent with the other vortexed pearls. However, this microstructure does not comply with the known microstructure of the Fusinus colus shell—or any known gastropod or bivalve for that matter.

 

[SteveM]

…below are photos received from Bali of a found Nautilus pearl together with its mollusk, and a closeup of the bottom of the pearl with that eyecatching swirl. I'm not anatomically adept is the pearl coming out of the animal's EYE?

These photos are from the same source as the blister posted by JNorris…

This miraculous 'pearl from the eye of a Nautilus' was sold to a London jeweler and subsequently sent to GemLab for certification (my assumption based upon GemLab director Thomas Hainschwang's description of an odd specimen with 'swirl' received just prior to our meeting in Tucson last February).

I assume it failed certification, as it has resurfaced on the seller's website.

This is a calcareous gastropod operculum (LINK to the authority on the subject), polished up a bit. The seller has reduced his price to a modest $20,000 US. But it is a full 30 carats.

 

[DrTKStern]

Nautilus Pearls

Nautilus Pearls

Hi, All,

I now have two Nautilus pearls with GIA cert. Societe des Perles Fines Natural Pearl Society will be posting photographs of both. www.NaturalPearlSociety.org


Sincerely,
Tom