Friday Cephalopod: Like a pearl torpedo
Category: Cephalopods • Organisms
Posted on: May 16, 2008 12:05 PM, by PZ Myers
Loligo forbesi
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
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Comments
A pearl torpedo with what, stretchmarks?
Sorry, I'm at work, temporarily grumpy. I'll go away now.
Posted by: Betz | May 16, 2008 12:37 PM
Those are racing stripes, Betz!
Posted by: DaveX | May 16, 2008 12:40 PM
Pearl torpedo sounds like a phrase Tobias Fünke would use.
Posted by: Brownian, OM | May 16, 2008 1:12 PM
I'm not so sure it is wise to conceptually cross-connect squid with underwater robotic weaponry. I have visions of both radical fundamentalists and engineers at the navy research center simultaneously reading this and exclaiming: "Squid torpedoes" ... brilliant!
For the next several years you can be assured that someone, somewhere is trying to figure out how to mount explosives on and motivate squid to attack ships.
The western engineers seeking to genetically engineer squid to produce their own explosives and harbor a hatred of all things unamerican.
Their eastern counterpart spend their time sewing ten sleeved explosive vests and fatally boring captive animals by reading long passages of the Koran to them.
The remarkable thing is that the military-industrial planners and financiers on both sides will not think that either of these plans is ridiculous or in any way unusual.
So it goes.
Posted by: Art | May 16, 2008 2:48 PM
Translucent, too. They're lovely.
Those are hot-rod flames, guys!
Posted by: Monado | May 16, 2008 3:18 PM
So pretty...
Posted by: cicely | May 16, 2008 4:04 PM
The Kraken by Tennyson
Below the thunders of the upper deep;
Far far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides; above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumber'd and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.
Posted by: Bishop Pontoppodan | May 16, 2008 4:29 PM
Pear Torpedo, great name for a glam metal band.
I like the custom 'paint' job, subtle but effective
Posted by: Natasha Yar-Routh | May 16, 2008 4:40 PM
Aha, I rescind my rude comment and throw my delegates over to hot-rod flames.
Can we rename them now? "Flamed squid" is way cooler than "veined squid".
Thanks for posting the jaunty fellow(?), PZ. BTW, do the sources of the Friday Cephalapods experience an Amazon uptick after being featured?
Posted by: Betz | May 16, 2008 6:07 PM
"Flamed squid" is way cooler than "veined squid".
hmm, speaking of band names, Flaming Squid sounds good.
Posted by: Ichthyic | May 16, 2008 6:12 PM
speaking of band names, Flaming Squid sounds good.
I'd go see a band named Flaming Squid. Actually I used to have a friend who played in a band that was, briefly, called Bionic Tuna. They changed their name back to The Happy Mutants.
Anyway, this particular squid is beautiful, flames and all.
Posted by: Christopher Waldrop | May 16, 2008 7:50 PM
Looking at that, it's not hard to imagine it wearing a nice ammonite shell.
Posted by: craig | May 16, 2008 8:11 PM
Something that streamlined just couldn't have evolved!
(/joke)
Nice picture.
Posted by: DLC | May 16, 2008 8:24 PM
How beautiful
Posted by: sophia rusconi | May 17, 2008 10:12 AM