Octopuses running from predators

[icarian]

Ahh, don't worry about it. You're probably wrong all the time. Realizing it might be new however...

It's just a minor distinction.

I smell burning flesh

 

[Kampfjaeger]

Not nice to gloat, Icarian!

 

[tarsier]

WalkingMan, the direct link to a video is in RealPlayer format. If you follow the link to www.sciencemag.org, there are videos in QuickTime format.

Jennifer, very interesting, thanks for the post.

 

[TorzJohnson]

"Arrrr, that walking-coconut-octopus is gonna replace the giant squid in me nightmares..."

 

[zinn1348]

The plural of "octopus" = "octopi."

/Grammar nerd

Edited....Mr. Ren beat me to the punch.


Thomas Zinn

 

[java]

Octopi, octopods, octopuses
I don’t comprehend what the fuss is
They slide, walk, or ooze with a body that’s smooshy
And parboiled just right, make really good sushi – java the black

Sweet, Jen!!!

Thanks for linking to my home boys at AMS. I never saw Octopus aculeatus on Okinawa but O. marginalus could be found occasionally on some of the hard reef adjoining the sandy shoals and bays. They usually would ink and jet away using their siphons when caught in the open but you could see the walking behavior once in a while. To me they appeared more like a chrinoid or soft coral but the movement really startles you. I never saw this behavior in the more common O. cyanea and O. ornatus.

Interesting that you quoted the article’s imitating coconut behavior – they aren’t that good at it as the chromatophores aren’t as good at following a more continuous design like a coconut. They are more given to matching spotty surroundings like coarse corraline sands, broken detritus fields, or the hard corals and tidal flats where their dens were usually located. Octopods do change colors incredibly fast and you could tell when one was upset when they would flash red or purple if you touched them.

Farther southwest where both species are found more frequently O marginalus is known to hide in large bivalve or coconut shells. They use their arms to maintain tremendous pressure on the shells to keep the curious at bay. Their brains and nervous systems are quite complex and they are considered to have the intelligence equal to some birds and reptiles. There has been research indicating that they have the capacity to learn from watching others and some have even learned to unscrew lids to get at food inside jars etc. Pity the longest lived octopus only survives for three years.

I loved studying cephalopods but cuttlefish were my favorite. A night encounter with a 20 - 25 cm specimen hovering a few inches in front of your mask is eerily absorbing. They have a peaceful and serene almost ethereal presence about them and they appear as if an alien intelligence is studying you at the same time. They drift with you with the edge of their translucent mantles continuously undulating and are alert to every movement you make. If you slowly sweep the beam of your dive light across them, they flash in waves of iridescent rippling colors like a casino sign. They are stunningly beautiful creatures.

Thanks. Excellent post!


“Tell me octopus I begs
Is they arms or is they legs
I marvel at thee octopus
If I were thou I’d call me us”– Ogden Nash

j

 

[java]

"Arrrr, that walking-coconut-octopus is gonna replace the giant squid in me nightmares..."

Arrrrr! If its nightmares ye be seekin' - read up on pycnogonids! Old Scratch must've caught th' Almighty sleepin' at the design table and breathed the fire of hell into them ta make these sea scum scuttle about. Nary a brain guides these ravenous beasties but they are fierce predators with stomachs in their leggins' and shreddin' mouthparts fer rippin' the flesh of their unlucky prey. Give thanks the unholy big buggers live in the dark depths with Davy and but a few of the wee ones see th' light of day confinin' their hunger ta sea hares, nudibranchs, and copepods, me hearty!

(I love the sea and almost everything that lives in it but these things give me the ravin' heebie-jeebies. I'd just as soon (and have) pet a Galeocerdo cuvier (Tiger shark) than face a large specimen of these critters)

j

 

[Yvsa]

Arrrrr! If its nightmares ye be seekin' - read up on pycnogonids!
(I love the sea and almost everything that lives in it but these things give me the ravin' heebie-jeebies. I'd just as soon (and have) pet a Galeocerdo cuvier (Tiger shark) than face a large specimen of these critters)

j

Java you got me curious so I googled these. Looks like most are small, thank goodness!
Some are even kinda pretty.
But pretty wouldn't matter if the son of a gun was 15 feet long and hungry!!!!

http://www.divegallery.com/sea_spider.jpg

 

[Stu Gatz]

Whatever the grammar...That was a VERY cool post. Thanks Jennifer.

All the best,

Stuart

 

[java]

Java you got me curious so I googled these. Looks like most are small, thank goodness!
Some are even kinda pretty. But pretty wouldn't matter if the son of a gun was 15 feet long and hungry!!!!

These things are not right. There is no logical reason for their existence. They're called sea spiders but that's an insult to spiders everywhere. They creep me out!!

j

 

[faramir]

Greek "oktopous" plural would be "oktopodes". Borrowed by Latin as "octopus", plural "octopi". Borrowed by English from Latin, "octopuses" is legit. Three plurals we've got for "eight-footers" and we're only now learning how they walk. But we've been eating them for thousands of years.

I never stuied any Latin but i was under the impression that plural of words ending with -us was -ii (rather than -i) ? That dictionary entry Jennifer posted makes me wrong as it is but what's up with the -ii suffix then anyway ?

Oh andyeah, Realplayer is HUGE security risk - i have an old version here, it downloads spyware on regular bsis, but it's nothing i couldn't control - unlike newer versions. Huge security risk, avoid it if at all possible.