Nautilus is the common name of marine creatures of cephalopod

Cephalopod

A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda . These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head, and a set of arms or tentacles modified from the primitive molluscan foot...

 family Nautilidae, the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae

Nautilaceae

The Nautilaceae is one of five superfamilies that make up the Nautilida according to Bernard Kummel , and the only one that survived past the Triassic. The Nautilaceae comprise six families: Nautilidae, Paracenoceratidae, Pseudonautilidae, Cymatoceratidae, Hercoglossidae, and Aturiidae...

 and of its smaller but near equal suborder, Nautilina

Nautilina

The Nautilina is the last suborder of the Nautilida and the only nautiloids living since the end of the Triassic. The Nautilina, proposed by Shimanskiy, is basically the Nautilaceae of Kummel, 1964, defined by Furnish and Glenister, but differs in omitting two families, the Paracenoceratidae and...

. It comprises six living species in two genera, the type

Type genus

In biological classification, a type genus is a representative genus, as with regard to a biological family. The term and concept is used much more often and much more formally in zoology than it is in botany, and the definition is dependent on the nomenclatural Code that applies:* In zoological...

 of which is the genus Nautilus

Nautilus (genus)

Nautilus is a genus of cephalopods in the family Nautilidae. Species in this genus differ significantly in terms of morphology from those placed in the sister taxon Allonautilus. The oldest fossils of the genus are known from the Late Eocene Hoko River Formation, in Washington State and from...

. Though it more specifically refers to species Nautilus pompilius, the name chambered nautilus

Chambered Nautilus

The Chambered Nautilus, Nautilus pompilius, is the best-known species of nautilus. The shell, when cut away reveals a lining of lustrous nacre and displays a nearly perfect equiangular spiral, although it is not a golden spiral. The shell exhibits countershading, being light on the bottom and dark...

 is also used for any species of the Nautilidae.

Nautilidae, both extant and extinct, are characterized by involute

Involute

In the differential geometry of curves, an involute is a curve obtained from another given curve by attaching an imaginary taut string to the given curve and tracing its free end as it is wound onto that given curve; or in reverse, unwound. It is a roulette wherein the rolling curve is a straight...

 or slightly evolute

Evolute

In the differential geometry of curves, the evolute of a curve is the locus of all its centers of curvature. Equivalently, it is the envelope of the normals to a curve....

 shells that are generally smooth, with compressed or depressed whorl sections, straight to sinuous sutures, and a tubular, generally central siphuncle.