Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
…and this is a pharyngula stage embryo.
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Objectivity cannot be equated with mental blankness; rather, objectivity resides in recognizing your preferences and then subjecting them to especially harsh scrutiny - and also in a willingness to revise or abandon your theories when the tests fail (as they usually do).
Stephen Jay Gould
No genes were lost in the making of this whale
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« Carnivalia, and an open thread | Main | Hmmm. No wonder the Religious Right are enemies of higher education »
Category: Organisms
Posted on: August 18, 2006 9:34 AM, by PZ Myers
You may be wondering what they're doing. Here's a hint: that's a male below, and a female above. Here's another hint: that's his specialized third arm, the hectocotyl limb. Third hint: it's in her oviduct.
If you can't figure it out yet, look below the fold for an illustration.
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
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Comments
=)
I smile because I don't know what's going on...
Posted by: BlueIndependent | August 18, 2006 9:49 AM
Yeesh. Poor guy has to sneak up on her an' everything.
Posted by: Bachalon | August 18, 2006 9:58 AM
What a typical octoguy! You'd think with eight arms he could spare at least one for foreplay! But no, he just reaches over and sticks his hectocotyl limb right in there.
Posted by: Colin | August 18, 2006 10:11 AM
Feelthy pictures. Octopuses. Cartoons. Science is good.
Posted by: Jeff Chamberlain | August 18, 2006 10:13 AM
Ok, I'm confused. Here's what I see - correct me where I'm wrong! The male is the dark redish thing at the bottom of the picture. The female looks like a mound of Ghostbuster-style ectoplasm, and is sat on top of a rock, and is biting it with very human-looking teeth (!). The male is stretching up to the female with his 'specialized 3rd arm', and is attempting to swat a pufferfish from her head (or whatever that part of her is). The pufferfish, understandably slightly alarmed by this, has puffed up in response.
Is that about right?
Posted by: Eliza | August 18, 2006 10:24 AM
No, that's not right at all, you naive, innocent, sweet thing.
Posted by: PZ Myers![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/nav-commenters.gif)
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August 18, 2006 10:26 AM
Fisting cephalopods. Now I truly have seen everything. And I wish I hadn't.
Posted by: Mary | August 18, 2006 10:33 AM
I really don't think it is appropriate to be posting this on a publicly-accessible blog. There may be impressionable young holothurians about.
Posted by: Jessica Guilford | August 18, 2006 10:40 AM
Hi, yesterday I jumped into a blog by accident and found a nice Octopus movie.I know of your love for cephalopods so here is the link. I am not sure if it is a real movie, but looks amazing. Unfortunately the contents of the blog are not quite good, maybe good material for more of your posts...
(http://robboss.wordpress.com/2006/08/17/primitive-octopus-eats-shark/)
Posted by: Andrea | August 18, 2006 11:26 AM
Squid porn. It was only a matter of time. :)
Posted by: Jennifer Ouellette | August 18, 2006 11:48 AM
Eliza,
You're close. It's not a "pufferfish", it's called a "flufferfiish". It's a very specialized species.
Posted by: Alex | August 18, 2006 12:06 PM
Does the hectocotylus detatch in this species?
Posted by: Stanton | August 18, 2006 12:38 PM
I don't think I've seen anyone here mention it, so here it is- gay octopuses!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rhudM4F5ogU
Posted by: TAW | August 18, 2006 12:46 PM
birds Do It
bees Do It
...
octopuses Do It (well...yeah...sorta)
...
Australian lungfishes Do It (but not for long)
...
Posted by: CCP | August 18, 2006 2:32 PM
Dear sweet Jeebus, Alex.
I think I need to wash my brain, now.
Posted by: Dan | August 18, 2006 3:10 PM
You know, you should really warn us when you're posting images that aren't safe for work. Sheesh!
Posted by: Warren | August 18, 2006 3:51 PM
I think I need a cold shower right about now...
Posted by: DocAmazing | August 18, 2006 4:05 PM
I never see any photos or images when I visit your blog. I get to it through the feed, and I'm using Firefox. Is there some setting which is blocking images? The URL I get for this post is http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/08/friday_cephalopod_explicit.php.
I enjoy reading your blog. I admire squid and octopi, though not professionally. One of my favorite memories is a close encounter with a squid while snorkeling in the Virgin Islands.
Posted by: Xris | August 18, 2006 5:42 PM
Xris
Yes, there is a security setting in Firefox that blocks media that is not from the same website as the rest of the page.
Go to: Tools,Options,Content
The checkbox "Load Images from originating website only" shouldn't be checked.
Posted by: PierreB | August 18, 2006 7:25 PM
Hmmm ... I have "Load images" enabled, but NOT "for the originating Web site only." I think it's a page-rendering problem. For example, I can see the caption Octopus cyanea at the top of the article. The HTML for the caption only has this:
Octopus cyanea
There's no tag in the HTML, hence no image.
Posted by: Xris | August 19, 2006 4:21 PM
Sorry about that. I need to encode the HTML. Let's try it this way:
<div class="captionedfigure"> <br /><i>Octopus cyanea</i></div>
Posted by: Xris | August 19, 2006 4:27 PM
That's very weird. There is an image tag in there, really there is.
I've jiggered some of the parameters in the tag a little. Tell me if it works for you now.
Posted by: PZ Myers![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/nav-commenters.gif)
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August 19, 2006 4:39 PM
I can tell you that this is what is actually in there:
<div class="captionedfigure"><img src="http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/upload/2006/08/octopus_cyanea.jpg" alt="octopus_cyanea.jpg" width="400" height="664" /><br /><i>Octopus cyanea</i></div>
It's not computer generated or anything -- I typed that code in by hand. I really do suspect that it's something on your end that strips out img tags for some reason.
Posted by: PZ Myers![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/nav-commenters.gif)
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August 19, 2006 4:45 PM
Hey - both the photo and the, um, educational comic are showing up in IE today!
I'll check in again later tonight with FireFox and see if it shows up there.
Posted by: Xris | August 21, 2006 4:40 PM
I'm having the same issue in Firefox, and I don't have any weird settings that I know of, either.
Posted by: Austin Sipes | August 21, 2006 6:32 PM
Firefox -- use the Advanced button to the right of the Load Images area.
Paste in http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/ and click 'Allow'
I don't know why sometimes you need to explicitly allow it, but it can solve the problem regardless of how your other options are set.
Posted by: hank | August 22, 2006 6:43 PM