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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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You see, one thing is, I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of uncertainty about different things, but I am not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we're here… I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose, which is the way it really is as far as I can tell. It doesn't frighten me.
[Richard P. Feynman]
« Although the idea of living in sin with my wife is deliciously tempting… | Main | Friday Cephalopod: A cute little guy »
Category: Cephalopods • Organisms
Posted on: July 5, 2007 7:42 PM, by PZ Myers
A new squid has been caught near Hawaii — much is being made of the fact that it has eight arms instead of ten, but that doesn't seem like such a big deal to me, since we have the example of Taningia danae with a similar arrangement. It's more interesting that there is a preliminary assignment to the genus Mastigoteuthis, a curious and poorly understood group of cephalopods.
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Comments
Posted by: Christian Burnham | July 5, 2007 7:49 PM
Squidulous!
Posted by: Zeno | July 5, 2007 8:08 PM
Eight legs? Then it must be a spider!
Posted by: Chris Simeur | July 5, 2007 10:40 PM
Sorry for a dumb question, but is the primary reason Mastigoteuthis is poorly understood dependent on the fact it resides in deep water?
Posted by: llewelly | July 6, 2007 12:41 AM
A smooth diversion that will doubtless prevent intrepid reporters from asking the dangerous questions that would lead to their discovery of the secret breeding program, and thereby, their untimely demise in the deeps of the Southern Ocean.
Posted by: mgarelick | July 6, 2007 1:28 AM
Sounds like the high school reunion I just went to.
Posted by: forsen | July 6, 2007 3:18 AM
Couldn't it be that the holotype just happens to be a freak mutation, and not normative for the species as such? Guess we'll never know until we find more of them...
Posted by: mara | July 6, 2007 9:17 AM
If this is evidence of interbreeding, how far out can they go? Could we, for example, push for a "Nauti-pus"?
Perhaps not such a clever creature, but it's name more than makes up for its intellectual deficiencies.
Posted by: David Marjanović | July 6, 2007 9:28 AM
Why should it be? I bet it's simply another species of not-quite-conventional squid.
Posted by: minimalist | July 6, 2007 9:53 AM
Creationist response:
"Oh yeah?!? Well if cephalopods evolved, how come we don't see any half-squid/half-octop-- ...oh."
Posted by: bernarda | July 6, 2007 10:14 AM
Here is a case of interbreeding, a zorse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sngdjRdJ5Wg
Posted by: mikmik | July 6, 2007 11:06 AM
The octosquid was pulled to the surface, along with three rattail fish and half a dozen satellite jellyfish, and stayed alive for three days.
What!? This story shouldn't be about squid breeding with octopi, fish and rats getting it on ?! They don't even breath the same air, water, you know! But now satellites are not safe even from jellyfish?!?! I don't even want to go there over how they breath.
Shit, I got to go, my cat is purring and rubbing up against my Doberman. See what you started!???!
Posted by: Brownian | July 6, 2007 12:32 PM
No, because it's already brought pleasure to the researchers ("When we first saw it, I was really delighted", "We really enjoy these little mysteries that come up") and we all know there are no such things as beneficial mutations.*
*Keep it under your hat though; we have a world-wide conspiracy to maintain.
Posted by: forsen | July 6, 2007 1:37 PM
Indeed. *sigh* the Evil Atheist Conspiracy™ can be one helluva drag to maintain at times... especially given all the evidence for Creation Science we have to hide away.
Posted by: Chinchillazilla | July 6, 2007 11:03 PM
Aww! He's cute! (Or is it a she?)
Posted by: Jan War | July 9, 2007 4:16 PM
It's quite amazing how fast the word gets out. We found the "octosquid" thirteen days ago and inquiries are now coming in from all over the world. I hate to burst anyone's bubble, but it probably originally had ten tenticles and two likely were torn off while the specimen was in the intake screen. None the less, it is still an un-described species and may end up at the Smithsonian. We feel very strongly that more discoveries will be found in the near future. We have a very unique situation and have never fully capitalized on this sampling opportunity. Two years ago we discovered a new genus of fish that still has scientists buzzing. Aloha from Kona - Jan War @ NELHA
Posted by: PZ Myers | July 9, 2007 4:26 PM
Yeah, that's kind of what I expected -- the Mastigoteuthids have the usual 10 arms.