Pharyngula: Friday Cephalopod: All glory to the hypno-'pod

Search

Profile

PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
…and this is a pharyngula stage embryo.
• a longer profile of yours truly
• my calendar
• Nature Network
• RichardDawkins Network
• facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter
• Atheist Nexus
• the Pharyngula chat room
(#pharyngula on irc.synirc.net)

I reserve the right to publicly post, with full identifying information about the source, any email sent to me that contains threats of violence.

I support Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Random Quote

(Complete listing)

[…] the first man to hear the voice of Om, and who gave Om his view of humans, was a shepherd and not a goatherd. They have quite different ways of looking at the world, and the whole of history might have been different. For sheep are stupid and have to be driven. But goats are intelligent and have to be led.

(Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)

A Taste of Pharyngula

(Complete listing)

Homo floresiensis, Flores Man

Bicoid evolution

Two-legged goats and developmental variation

A brief overview of Hox genes

How to evolve a vulva

Symmetry breaking and genetic assimilation

Patterning the nervous system with Bmp

Evolution of sensory signaling

Other Information

2005 Koufax Award
Best Expert

2006 Weblogs Award

« Virtually speaking | Main | Portrait of a president »

Friday Cephalopod: All glory to the hypno-'pod

Category: Cephalopods • Organisms
Posted on: April 18, 2008 8:19 AM, by PZ Myers

Octopus abaculus

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

Find more posts in: Life Science

Comments

Posted by: Oleg | April 18, 2008 8:34 AM

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/8880/52771formattedhypnotoadfg8.gif

Posted by: Blaidd Drwg | April 18, 2008 8:50 AM

Is it just me, or does that pic look a lot like a Mandlebrodt fractal image?

Posted by: HumanisticJones | April 18, 2008 8:51 AM

Eh... This show's been going down hill since the third season. *continues to stare at the screen*

Posted by: David | April 18, 2008 8:54 AM

@Blaidd Drwg

That was my first thought, too. You know you need to get out of the house more when you see Mandelbrot fractals in a humble cephalopod.

Posted by: wiz5 | April 18, 2008 9:04 AM

I can't believe PZ would stoop tAAALL GLORY TO THE HYPNO-POD!

Posted by: Sili | April 18, 2008 9:31 AM

Forced meme is forcALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOPOD

Posted by: Lilly de Lure | April 18, 2008 9:37 AM

David said:

That was my first thought, too. You know you need to get out of the house more when you see Mandelbrot fractals in a humble cephalopod.

Mine too! Still it could be worse, at least no-one's seen the Virgin Mary in there yet!

Posted by: random feller | April 18, 2008 10:07 AM

I do see something resembling a grilled cheese sandwich, however.

Posted by: Fiziker | April 18, 2008 10:22 AM

That was my first thought, too. You know you need to get out of the house more when you see Mandelbrot fractals in a humble cephalopod.
Mine too! Still it could be worse, at least no-one's seen the Virgin Mary in there yet!

She's there. Rotate the cephalopod about a sixth of a revolution counterclockwise and zoom in a few times, then if you squint a bit she'll appear to you on the left. Zoom into her right nostril and another Virgin will appear.

#10

Posted by: Christopher Waldrop | April 18, 2008 10:27 AM

Pardon my ignorance (as much as I love cephalopods I skipped marine biology and became a mere librarian instead), but the "hypno-'pod" looks like what I've commonly heard called a "mimic octopus". Or is that a different species? If it's one of them pesky mimickers then it should come as no surprise if anyone sees the Virgin Mary or a grilled cheese sandwich or PZ Myers or a grilled cheese sandwich with PZ Myers standing next to the Virgin Mary and asking the obvious question: if there was a Virgin Mary, how the heck does anyone know what she looked like?

#11

Posted by: Andreas Johansson | April 18, 2008 10:56 AM

Little know fact: the Holy Spirit visited Mary in the shape of a hypno-'pod.

#12

Posted by: Quiet Desperation | April 18, 2008 11:26 AM

Is it just me, or does that pic look a lot like a Mandlebrodt fractal image?

Or... is it the Mandelbrot fractal that looks like the octopus?

(stares into space for the next three hours)

Zoom into her right nostril and another Virgin will appear.

If only it were that simple to make virigns appear.

(rimshot)

Hey-yo!

#13

Posted by: Cheezits | April 18, 2008 11:47 AM

"Is it just me, or does that pic look a lot like a Mandlebrodt fractal image?"

It looks like some sort of fractal, that's for sure!

Check out this guy, some of his videos remind me of tentacled sea creatures.

#14

Posted by: Monado, FCD | April 18, 2008 2:05 PM

Here's a little more information about the critter: Pharyngula's Friday Cephalopod: Octopus abaculus. It's relatively new.

#15

Posted by: Taollan | April 18, 2008 2:58 PM

Just for interest sake, this octopus is no longer in the genus Octopus, but rather has been moved to the genus Abdopus.

#16

Posted by: Rahne | April 18, 2008 7:46 PM

No no no, it's "all glory to the hypnosquiALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOPOD

#17

Posted by: Longtime Lurker | April 18, 2008 8:37 PM

PeeZed, do you get kickbacks from Mark Norman? How many copies of his book have you helped move? Dagon knows, when my thirty pieces of silver come from Bush to help prime the economic pump, I will buy a copy.

#18

Posted by: Brian | April 19, 2008 12:13 AM

Why the heck does everyone keep postingALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOPOD