Pharyngula: Friday Cephalopod: A peek into the mind of the octopus

Search

Profile

PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
…and this is a pharyngula stage embryo.
• a longer profile of yours truly
• my calendar
• Nature Network
• RichardDawkins Network
• facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter
• Atheist Nexus
• the Pharyngula chat room
(#pharyngula on irc.synirc.net)

I reserve the right to publicly post, with full identifying information about the source, any email sent to me that contains threats of violence.

I support Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Random Quote

(Complete listing)

A good rule for interpretation is: 'If the literal sense makes good sense, seek no other sense lest you come up with nonsense'

[Anonymous]

A Taste of Pharyngula

(Complete listing)

A book list for evolutionists

Diploblasts and triploblasts

How to evolve a vulva

Development, medicine, and evolution of the neck and shoulder

My heart-warming tale of self-affirmation

Evolution of alcohol synthesis

Vertebral variation, Hox genes, development, and cancer

Generating right-left asymmetries

Other Information

2005 Koufax Award
Best Expert

2006 Weblogs Award

Subscribe via Email

Stay abreast of your favorite bloggers' latest and greatest via e-mail, via a daily digest.

Sign me up!

« Yearly Kos news | Main | Mother's Milk »

Friday Cephalopod: A peek into the mind of the octopus

Category: Organisms
Posted on: May 19, 2006 8:06 AM, by PZ Myers

Vitrelodonella richardi, the glass octopus

Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide ^{(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll)}, by Mark Norman.

TrackBacks

(TrackBack URL for this entry: )

Comments

Soon, the octopodian cloaking device will be complete, and the invasion will begin.

Posted by: Bronze Dog | May 19, 2006 8:19 AM

I think the genus name is mispelled. I went to google up more information on this beauty, and it came back suggesting "VitrelEdonella."

Posted by: Alex Galaitsis | May 19, 2006 8:36 AM

This is beautiful--someone should make a glass octopus-inspired batik fabric. Then we could have glass octopus throw pillows on our couch! (Better than those damn fake leopard-print things that never cease to creep me out... I thought one was real margay fur when I was about four and still haven't gotten over the horror.)

Posted by: Molly Newman | May 19, 2006 9:49 AM

nice!
pelagic/planktonic, one might predict?

yep, info and more pix:
http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Vitreledonella%20richardi

Posted by: CCP | May 19, 2006 10:41 AM

Given that cephalopods actually use their eyes, I wonder how this particular critter deals with the 'background noise' of having translucent eye-sockets. All the potential light coming in away from the lens must cause some sort of problem, no?

Posted by: Flinx | May 19, 2006 2:02 PM

Given that cephalopods actually use their eyes, I wonder how this particular critter deals with the 'background noise' of having translucent eye-sockets.

Opaque eyeballs to shade the retina probably. I believe eyeballs are generally opaque.

Posted by: Andrew Wade | May 19, 2006 3:18 PM

I figure that their eyeballs appear translucent only because a very strong light is being shone upon them. After all, they live in a very dim environment where "candlelight" is considered to be painfully bright.

Posted by: Stanton | May 19, 2006 4:46 PM

I don't see the problem. The eyes are those large oval opaque things. Eyes aren't going to be transparent -- they have to absorb photons, or they won't work.

Posted by: PZ Myers | May 19, 2006 4:54 PM

There was another friday cephalapod I ran across today:
http://www.asofterworld.com/soft_may19_2006.htm

Posted by: Aaron Denney | May 19, 2006 9:21 PM