Friday Cephalopod: It does look rather evil-overlordish
Category: Cephalopods • Organisms
Posted on: August 3, 2007 6:00 AM, by PZ Myers

Macrotritopus larva
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
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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I returned to the Holiday Inn—where they have a swimming pool and air-conditioned rooms—to consider the paradox of a nation that has given so much to those who preach the glories of rugged individualism from the security of countless corporate sinecures, and so little to that diminishing band of yesterday's refugees who still practice it, day by day, in a tough, rootless and sometimes witless style that most of us have long since been weaned away from.
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Category: Cephalopods • Organisms
Posted on: August 3, 2007 6:00 AM, by PZ Myers

Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
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Comments
Posted by: SEF | August 3, 2007 6:28 AM
It's lovely. However, those arm gestures could be a form of semaphore communication, spell-casting or expansive gesticulation to accompany some rhetoric. It does seem pretty intense about it. :-D
Posted by: Graculus | August 3, 2007 6:39 AM
Well, evil-overlordish if "Evil Overlord" includes squeee-inducingly cute.
Posted by: DaveX | August 3, 2007 7:27 AM
Semaphore, my ass. Clearly, this little one is doing the robot.
Posted by: Graculus | August 3, 2007 7:35 AM
Testing, testing, sciblogs is eating my posts in moderation again....
Posted by: Lee Harrison | August 3, 2007 7:49 AM
That is SO Cthulhu - love it.
Gotta say - I love all the friday cephalopods. Keep it up, PZ, and thanks.
Posted by: Andrew Dodds | August 3, 2007 8:48 AM
SEF - If YOU were plankton and realised that your chances of reaching adulthood withoug getting filtered and digested by one of several thousand different species was about 1 in a gazillion, you'd be pretty intense as well..
Posted by: Brigit | August 3, 2007 8:51 AM
This one looks like one I saw at the tattoo parlor the other day that basically screamed "PZ". Imagine the same arm gestures in a rather ferocious-looking octopus with a banner that said "Death from Below". I've even tried looking online for it, but it was an original from that parlor :(
Posted by: Colin M | August 3, 2007 9:08 AM
Sorry everyone, but I just had to caption this one. LOLctopus!
Posted by: jhallum | August 3, 2007 9:11 AM
I note this morning that the new Lio comic Anthology will have a great title:
"Happiness is a Squishy Cephalopod"
http://astore.amazon.com/ucomicscom/detail/0740768492/104-8619763-4915915
I know its first on my Christmas list.
Posted by: Sean | August 3, 2007 9:20 AM
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.
Posted by: SEF | August 3, 2007 9:46 AM
"LOLctopus" is rather cthuloidly unpronounceable. It could be a lolopod instead.
Posted by: RamblinDude | August 3, 2007 10:04 AM
All hail His High Holiness of Octopi, Pope Defilippi.
Prepare to get really blessed.
Posted by: Ronald Brak | August 3, 2007 10:12 AM
I want one as a hat.
Posted by: Rey Fox | August 3, 2007 11:25 AM
I, for one, welcome our new widdle cefwopod overlords. Yes I do yes I do!
Posted by: frau im mond | August 3, 2007 11:31 AM
Scientists Engineer 12-Headed Jellyfish. Article explains HOW they did it, but not WHY...
Posted by: Jenbug | August 3, 2007 11:32 AM
Now that perfectly matches the exterior paint of my car! I would love to have that little guy hanging from my rearview, possibly waving his arms to match my direction. He beats my boyfriend's Velocity Jesus, but not by much.
*Sigh* A girl can dream though.
Posted by: SEF | August 3, 2007 12:09 PM
Are you sure about that?
Posted by: K. Engels | August 3, 2007 12:39 PM
Ia! Ia! Macrotritopus larva Fhtagn!
Posted by: Aaron Kinney | August 3, 2007 1:09 PM
Oh no, its SQUIDKING!
Posted by: PalMD | August 3, 2007 1:53 PM
Damn, you'd need a whole lot of those to make a good salad...i would think you could substitute them for jellyfish in a Vietnamese jellyfish salad.
Posted by: Ronald Brak | August 3, 2007 2:18 PM
SEF, Currently I have one team working on creating a giant Macrotritopus larva large enough to wear as a hat and another team working on a way to shink me small enough to wear one as a hat. The second team is of course a ruse. Once they perfect the shrinking technology I shall use it on them and feed the entire team to my new headgear.
Posted by: horrobin | August 3, 2007 2:22 PM
"FEAW ME!!"
Posted by: Tom @Thoughtsic.com | August 3, 2007 2:48 PM
SEF wrote:
It worked out for Harry Potter, didn't it?Posted by: pansauce | August 3, 2007 3:40 PM
"Who's the little fear demon?"
Posted by: zayzayem | August 3, 2007 10:23 PM
But it's just a wee baby. awwwwww
Posted by: cory | August 4, 2007 10:42 AM
Hmmmm....next-generation human/Dalek hybrid...now with TWO eyes!
Ex-TERMINATE!
Posted by: deeana | August 4, 2007 12:19 PM
That would make an excellent badge or sticker. Does PZ consider getting shirts for his blog or want to have a nifty little logo? Because it's both fearsome and cute, as others have said! :)
Posted by: Justin Moretti | August 5, 2007 6:44 PM
The body sac, or gut sac, or whatever, above the head and tentacles, reminds me disturbingly of Sauron's Eye from the LOTR films.
There's a place for cephalopod macros to rival cat macros, I'm sure. CephLOLopods.
Posted by: Natalie Wagner | April 4, 2008 10:52 AM
http://www.craphound.com/images/hilliersquid.jpg