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Friday Cephalopod: Contact

Category: Cephalopods • Organisms
Posted on: October 3, 2008 7:46 AM, by PZ Myers

Sepia latimanus and Homo sapiens

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

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Comments

Posted by: Kel | October 3, 2008 7:49 AM

When do you sleep PZ?

Posted by: Fernando Magyar | October 3, 2008 7:50 AM

Now that's what you call vintage scuba equipment.

Posted by: Ian | October 3, 2008 7:54 AM

Kel, please go to sleep yourself. I suffer from the delusion of being the first person to post a comment about a PZ posting. You have ruined my day. May you have overcooked takoyaki for the rest of your life.

Posted by: Kel | October 3, 2008 8:03 AM

Kel, please go to sleep yourself.

It's 10pm here, nowhere near my bedtime :P

Posted by: Michael the G | October 3, 2008 8:31 AM

Close encounters of the Cephalopod kind!!

Does anyone have a guess as to where this was taken? Well, besides underwater anyway ;)

Posted by: Mark | October 3, 2008 8:58 AM

Diver: "Huh? I wonder where...?"

Cephalopod: "SURPRISE COCK-FACE!!!"

Diver: **shits him/herself**

Posted by: Didac | October 3, 2008 9:13 AM

Are we supposed to assume that, according to Mark Noman, Homo sapiens L. is now placed between the Cephalopoda?

Posted by: Brian English | October 3, 2008 9:26 AM

Sepia Latimanus = Side handed cuttlefish? My latin isn't good. Latus = side, manus = hand. Or maybe I got that wrong. :)

Posted by: Katkinkate | October 3, 2008 9:27 AM

I cannot see the cephalopod! Is it supposed to be that black cloud on top of the divers head? I thought that was his hair. Or is it ink?

#10

Posted by: Brian English | October 3, 2008 9:38 AM

I cannot see the cephalopod! Is it supposed to be that black cloud on top of the divers head?

In case your are asking, it's the long, somewhat cigar shaped redish/whitish/cuttlefishish thing that extends from just above the diver's hand towards the bottom left.....

#11

Posted by: Rob | October 3, 2008 9:55 AM

I had the wonderful delight of interacting with (over the course of many dives in Australia last year) several such giant cuttlefish. I was genuinely shocked to discover that these creatures can communicate their feelings and thoughts so very clearly to humans. I understood what they were "saying"! [Sometimes.] Their ability to change texture and colour (in milliseconds with multi-megapixel resolution), combined with the flexibility of their tentacles for gesturing, makes their bandwidth for communication amazingly broad. Broad enough that even slow humans can get hints to the meaning of what they want to say.

I really wonder just how much they can convey to each other. They are highly intelligent even by cephalopod standards, but are (as I understand) tragically short-lived.
(Two or three years at most).

Cuttlefish rule.

#12

Posted by: JackC | October 3, 2008 10:01 AM

OK - nice pic and all - but surely that is a painting (from a book photo) and not a photo? I mean - the mask looks all strange - and appears to have a water line that is defying gravity... (note the direction of the bubbles)

#13

Posted by: Katkinkate | October 3, 2008 10:07 AM

"In case your are asking, it's the long, somewhat cigar shaped redish/whitish/cuttlefishish thing that extends from just above the diver's hand towards the bottom left..."

Bloody good camoflage then. It looks like a chunk of coral.

#14

Posted by: coz | October 3, 2008 10:33 AM

Scuba diving in Sydney Harbour once, my husband had a cuttlefish follow him around for most of the dive. It seemed as fascinated by us as we were by him.
It was very cool. Cutest beasties.

#15

Posted by: Paul Burnett | October 3, 2008 10:39 AM

"I cannot see the cephalopod!" - #9

It's been described above, but here's another picture from a different orientation that may help:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1278/542406826_01ea90f518.jpg%3Fv%3D0&imgrefurl=http://flickr.com/photos/svenalgerie/542406826/&h=960&w=1280&sz=133&hl=en&start=90&um=1&usg=__Pl_-JsKji7a-UEVYBjfgrA35seE=&tbnid=gIA6meaPTCwRqM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsepia%2Blatimanus%26start%3D80%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN

#16

Posted by: Katkinkate | October 3, 2008 11:00 AM

Thank you Paul.

#17

Posted by: Glen Davidson | October 3, 2008 11:09 AM

Yay, a cuttlefish!

It's a long way from there to a parakeet pecking on its "bone".

Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7

#18

Posted by: wÒÓ† | October 3, 2008 11:26 AM

(.)(.)

#19

Posted by: Drew | October 3, 2008 11:37 AM

@ Jack C:

It looks like a real pic, just listing to the left a little.

Boy that diver sure has crappy bouyancy control. I hope he/she still isn't laying on top of coral like that...

#20

Posted by: Evolving Squid | October 3, 2008 11:53 AM

I just received "Cephalopods: A World Guide" in the mail this week. It occupies a hallowed position on my coffee table alongside "The God Delusion" and "God: The failed hypothesis"

#21

Posted by: Sven DIMilo | October 3, 2008 11:53 AM

Coupla good cuttlefish vids:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ujRgSRYE9A
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYqtfJpIz00

#22

Posted by: Craig | October 3, 2008 11:55 AM

If you ain't weighed in on who won the debate. Biden is ahead.

http://elections.foxnews.com/

#23

Posted by: Patricia | October 3, 2008 12:39 PM

I can't see it either.

#24

Posted by: sara | October 4, 2008 6:15 AM