Octopus camouflage : Pharyngula

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« American political conservatism impedes the understanding of science | Main | Friday Cephalopod: pretty and poisonous »

Octopus camouflage

Category: Cephalopods • Organisms
Posted on: January 12, 2007 12:01 AM, by PZ Myers

This will blow you away. Watch the video and spot the octopus—it's like magic.

(via Skeptic News)

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Comments

Posted by: Stanton | January 12, 2007 12:36 AM

Wow...
It took me a bit, but I realized that the octopus was the part of that clump of seaweed that wasn't swaying with the current.

Posted by: magista | January 12, 2007 12:42 AM

I'm surprised you didn't see that much sooner. I think I first saw it about 3 or 4 months ago, at least.

So surely you've also seen the edible squid-flavoured postcards? I mean, since it was on BoingBoing and all...

I know that you were definitely the first person I thought of.

Posted by: Bronze Dog | January 12, 2007 1:01 AM

I've seen that clip about a dozen times on Discovery Channel or something. And it's still cool!

Posted by: Dan | January 12, 2007 1:56 AM

I wish I could do that. It'd be great fun on Halloween.

Posted by: Geoffrey | January 12, 2007 3:01 AM

Video isn't working for me, but if it's the one I think it is - octopus against seaweed suddenly blanches white and jets away, and then they reverse the footage? - there's a better-resolution version in a rather good Discovery Channel piece on cephs.

(I know this because I have the sort of wife who buys me cephalopod DVDs.)

Posted by: chuck | January 12, 2007 3:11 AM

As Borat would say, "Wowoweewa!"

Posted by: avery | January 12, 2007 3:43 AM

If the video looks like it's not working, click once in the area where the video should be...that seemed to help for me on Mac(Safari) and Linux(Firefox).

Posted by: John Owens | January 12, 2007 4:44 AM

Shouldn't this octopus be in the delurking post?

Posted by: MC | January 12, 2007 5:44 AM

This blew me away last September.

#10

Posted by: Unstable Isotope | January 12, 2007 6:05 AM

That was awesome! Forget chameleons, octopuses are the real camouflage champs.

#11

Posted by: darius | January 12, 2007 6:44 AM

Actually it really blew me away when PZ linked to it last June.

#12

Posted by: Callandor | January 12, 2007 7:24 AM

Forget when it was first made, that's ridiculously cool.

#13

Posted by: R | January 12, 2007 7:26 AM

Doesn't seem to work in Firefox 2.0 under WindowsXP on my PC, but IE7 is fine.

#14

Posted by: Abie | January 12, 2007 8:09 AM

>Darius : spot on!
I knew I had already seen it, and I couldn't think of anywhere else bt here :)

#15

Posted by: OhioBrian | January 12, 2007 8:21 AM

One of the comments in the previous link identified the original source, but the clip was also included in "The Octopus Show," a special on PBS's "Nature" series. (My cousin's husband directed and hosted that show, a fact of which I am forever proud.)

#16

Posted by: Jason | January 12, 2007 8:34 AM

identified the original source

http://www.mbl.edu/mrc/hanlon/index.html

#17

Posted by: oldcola | January 12, 2007 8:36 AM

spotted at 00:08 :-)
I really enjoyed hunting them

#18

Posted by: Michael Hopkins | January 12, 2007 8:42 AM

Doesn't seem to work in Firefox 2.0 under WindowsXP on my PC, but IE7 is fine.

Works just fine in Firefox 2 using XP on my PC.

#19

Posted by: Jay Hosler | January 12, 2007 9:08 AM

That was fantastic. I love cephalopods. They're almost as cool as insects. Almost.

#20

Posted by: Talen Lee | January 12, 2007 9:17 AM

Well, this is clearly a shop. I can tell because of the pixels and having seen a few shops in my time.

Totally awesome stuff.

#21

Posted by: Francis | January 12, 2007 11:48 AM

What do you mean a shop? You mean it is doctored?

#22

Posted by: Stephen Wells | January 12, 2007 1:45 PM

On first viewing, it looked like the darn thing just decloaked. You normally only see that on sci-fi B-movies.

#23

Posted by: Rod Rich | January 12, 2007 3:57 PM

Sure looks suspiciously like a little clever compositing to me - the first thing that grabbed my attention was the profile of the "octopus" against the background before and after dropping its camouflage. Where'd the little knobby protrusions go? There are also some peculiar things going on around the borders of the octopus and the plant that looks like a blur/morph, but that could be compression errors. I doubt it, but maybe.

Since there's nothing on the line but pride, I'll bet this 'pus had a little technical help!

"Shopped" as in "Photoshopped?" Cool! New slang!

#24

Posted by: Rod Rich | January 12, 2007 4:00 PM

My wife the Compositing Queen just looked it over and declared it a complete fraud. So there.

#25

Posted by: sphex | January 12, 2007 4:33 PM

I don't think it's 'shopped'. Cephalopods are clever creatures, and camouflage is something they do very well. Color camouflage is only one kind. Here a couple of links to another kind.

PZ- I too was surprised you hadn't seen this video before... but since you hadn't, perhaps you missed these, too?

Octopus disguises self as branch of something and "walks" on two legs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRiEeHGBk2s

Octopus disguises self as coconut and "walks" on two legs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OByt5ISrzJs

#26

Posted by: Talen Lee | January 12, 2007 5:37 PM

Oh, holy mackarel, I'm sorry. I'm too used to memetics carrying well ahead of me. 'It's a shop', followed by the argument from authority, is often used as a meme for the individual who thinks so very highly of his insightful abilities when he is, in fact, wrong.

It's not a shop. If it is a shop (yes, as in photoshopped), it is beyond the feasibility of doing this for a prank. You have to ask yourself: If it's a shop, why would anyone do it?

#27

Posted by: Randy! | January 12, 2007 7:16 PM

Wow, a cephalopod concern troll. Is that a first? Only on PZ would you find one. In fact, of all the places to demonstrate one's ignorance of a particular subject, this guy chooses Pharyngula to try to demonstrate his knowledge of Cephalopods?

If Todd is being snarky with his 'shop reference then touche'. I have been taken in by his quality snark. Well done, sir.

#28

Posted by: Steff Z | January 12, 2007 7:34 PM

"Little knobby protrusions" on octopuses do, in fact, just go away.
They can change texture, as well as color. Fast.

@ those decreeing it's "shopped":
Is the fish a fake? It's all pixelated-looking.
How much computing time would have to go into rendering the highly realistic-looking ink cloud?
Do go look at the clip with the best resolution before crying "fake!"

The Hanlon lab doesn't NEED to fake this stuff; the real thing is already mind-bendingly, breathtakingly cool.
If you haven't noticed the extreme fabulousness of cephalopod camouflage abilities, you have not been reading PZ for very long.

#29

Posted by: Rod Rich | January 12, 2007 8:32 PM

A troll? Surely you don't mean moi.

Nope, just a work-a-day video guy, and while I obviously don't know doodly about cephalopods, I have enough experience with video/film compositing to know that this is absolutely doable as a special effect, even on After Effects or Combustion. (My wife happens to be better at it than I am. Could she have created this from scratch? I think so.)

So, I did a bit of poking around on the web, and sure enough, I'm not the only one who couldn't believe his eyes:

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/2917/

As for the authenticity of the clip, it certainly looks like, yup, it's real. Fantastic, amazing, but real. Sorry for suspecting you, Dr. Hanlon!

#30

Posted by: Steff Z | January 13, 2007 5:42 PM

Sorry to snark, Rod. I know about cephalopods, but not much about image compositing. So to me, faking it seems a lot harder than going on an expedition to Hawaii with an underwater video camera. I guess I'm wrong about that.
On the other hand, the field trip would be far more fun, despite the malicious glee that's such an important component of photoshop pranks.

#31

Posted by: Cheryl | February 27, 2008 6:02 PM

Wow.
Creepy.
Note to self: When walking on ocean floor, don't go near seaweed clumps.