Friday Cephalopod: Romantic dinner for two : Pharyngula

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Friday Cephalopod: Romantic dinner for two

Category: Cephalopods
Posted on: April 6, 2007 6:00 AM, by PZ Myers

Sepioteuthis lessoniana

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

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Comments

Posted by: Paul | April 6, 2007 6:09 AM

Is that a divers finger for scale behind them?

Posted by: Markk | April 6, 2007 7:12 AM

How thoughtful of them to eat fish on Good Friday.

Posted by: Silmarillion | April 6, 2007 7:34 AM

Paul, looks like a blue starfish to me.

Posted by: Darrell E | April 6, 2007 8:27 AM

Last night (Thursday) I watched a show on the discovery channel about marine biologists from Woods Hole OI studying gelatinous creatures in the mid level ocean. In one scene a very curious creature, identified only as "some kind of squid," was shown floating vertically in the water column. It had a long "tail" pointing downward that was approximately twice as long as the body + tentacles. This "tail" was shaped like a sword blade and had "knobs" spaced regularly along it. These "knobs" seemed to have a relatively high concentration of chromatophores, and the squid was changing the color / intensity of them.

Does anyone know what kind of squid this is, and how and what it uses that magnificent tail for?

Posted by: SEF | April 6, 2007 12:26 PM

With two more of them they'd be doing a passable dragonfly impression (and fatter ones could try for an eyed butterfly effect). :-D

Posted by: SN | April 6, 2007 6:00 PM

Last night's NOVA was on cuttlefish...it was called "Kings of Camouflage." Very amazing creatures, I had no idea! They showed some intelligence experiments they were running, very cool stuff. And they showed a "flamboyant cuttlefish" that walked on the sea floor because it could barely swim! Wow...amazing...

Posted by: J Daley | April 6, 2007 6:34 PM

My wife and I watched and really liked the NOVA show, and got to wondering: are there any cephalopods one could feasibly keep as a pet, in an aquarium?

From what I understand viable ~~cuddle~~ cuttlefish are difficult to get in the US, but what about any others?

Posted by: The Physicist | April 6, 2007 8:46 PM

What do you expect from those cephalo-fascists?

Posted by: C. Lathe | April 7, 2007 5:02 AM

Most cephalopods that are manageable by the hobbyist aquarium keeper only have a lifespan of about a year or two, which turns many people off. There are a few species of octopus that are kept and sold as relatively inexpensive (~20-30 dollars) lab creatures, and are fairly hardy. I would expect those that would keep cephalopods in aquariums to already have had a fair amount of experience keeping marine tanks, but other than that, there are many ways of keeping them in a responsible tank without breaking the bank.

#10

Posted by: Hank Roberts | April 7, 2007 7:12 PM

I recognize that blue thing, I think, it's one of the Old Ones from Lovecraft via User Friendly, and can be seen entering the last panel here:

http://www.userfriendly.org/cartoons/archives/07apr/uf010202.gif

#11

Posted by: Al E. | April 9, 2007 8:29 PM

Did anyone catch the squid embryo in the photos on the SciAm web site? Pretty cool (its the 12th photo down): http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=37095546-E7F2-99DF-3D9585B8E75A97D8