…and this is a 
Representatives of the Antarctic and deep-sea genera of octopuses. (a) Pareledone charcoti, a shallow-water species from the Antarctic Peninsula. (b) Thaumeledone gunteri, a deep-water species endemic to South Georgia. (c) Megaleledone setebos, a shallow water circum-Antarctic species endemic to the Southern Ocean. Specimen shown is juvenile; adults reach a total length of nearly 1 m. (d) Adelieledone polymorpha, a species endemic to the western Antarctic. All specimens illustrated are adult unless specified and were collected from the South Shetland Islands except T. gunteri from South Georgia. Scale bars all represent 1 cm.
(from Strugnell, JM, Rogers AD, Prodo PA, Collins MA, Allcock AL (2008) The thermohaline expressway: the Southern Ocean as a centre of origin for deep-sea octopuses. Cladistics 24:1-8)
Life Science
Comments
Posted by: Sigmund | December 5, 2008 6:22 AM
Is that 'kawaii' as in 'cute' in Japanese?
I found out that you should be careful in the way you pronounce it when complimenting Japanese friends on their newborn babies - leaving off the 'ee' sound at the end of kawaii ((Ka-wie-ee) changes the meaning of the word to 'scary'.
Posted by: Katrina | December 5, 2008 6:41 AM
Yes, Sigmund, you're right. We used to joke about that slight difference. Actually, the word for "scary" is generally written "kowai" in Romanji. (Ko-wy instead of ka-wa-eee)
Posted by: Cesium | December 5, 2008 7:21 AM
The thermohaline expressway? Catchy title.
Posted by: LaTomate | December 5, 2008 7:29 AM
How sweet!! I'm sure they taste real good fried with a bit of batter and garlic too.
(Hey, I'm French, the garlic is important).
Posted by: Blind Squirrel FCD | December 5, 2008 7:32 AM
Once again, are these liquid preserved specimens? They appear contracted.
Posted by: unstable Molecule | December 5, 2008 7:38 AM
KAWAII DESU DESU
Posted by: alex | December 5, 2008 7:41 AM
かわいいたこね！
actually, i've been eating a lot of these recently. "octopus balls" are really popular in japan.
Posted by: recovering catholic | December 5, 2008 7:59 AM
#5 You'd probably be contracted too if you lived in Arctic or deep sea ecosystems! Before I read your post I was wondering if, in fact, the contracted tentacles are an adaptation to the cold. But then there are the enormously extended tentacles of that deep-sea joint-legged squid that appeared here a couple of weeks ago...
Posted by: Stephen Wells | December 5, 2008 8:04 AM
Anything which looks that cute must be plotting something.
Posted by: MikeinJapan | December 5, 2008 8:06 AM
@alex
YUM ^^
The picture isn't what I usually consider kawaii, but what do I know? I'm definitely getting eaten pretty close to last. :(
Posted by: maryanne | December 5, 2008 8:17 AM
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/11/photogalleries/squid-magnapinna-photos/
Have you seen this one yet, PZ? A squid with elbows. It was in a link from Metafilter. This fellow was photographed by oil drillers. Could it be a mutant?
Posted by: Jeff Eyges | December 5, 2008 8:26 AM
The BBC had an article recently about (c). Apparently, it's the closest living relative to the ancestor of all deep-sea octopuses.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7715741.stm
Posted by: amz | December 5, 2008 8:30 AM
Kawaii sounds nothing like kowai... and it's "roomaji", not "romanji". ;)
Sorry about being so pedantic, it's in my blood.
Posted by: mikespeir | December 5, 2008 9:14 AM
I thought Kawai made pianos.
Awright, awright! I'm leaving.
Posted by: spgreenlaw | December 5, 2008 9:29 AM
Aishiteru!
I was not sure how to direct that to make it clear I was speaking about the octopi. Oh well. My terrible Japanese was smoldering away in the back of my brain, and I wanted to air it out.
Posted by: CrypticLife | December 5, 2008 9:33 AM
Yeah, if you're really going with a Japanese theme this is more the おいしい (oishii) or うまい (umai) gallery than the kawaii gallery.
Posted by: CrypticLife | December 5, 2008 9:53 AM
Ummmm. . . you should probably go with daisuki rather than aisheteru, though I'm suspect your use would be highly amusing to native speakers.
Octopi are "tako", so it would be "tako o daisuki" (you could replace the "o" with a "ga" and get something close to the same meaning). To be honest, though, since everyone here knows you're talking about the octopi, just "daisuki" would likely be just fine.
Posted by: SEF | December 5, 2008 10:53 AM
I have a suspicion that's a euphemism for "were killed by removal from". :-(Posted by: embertine | December 5, 2008 11:01 AM
THE CUTE
IT BURNS
Posted by: Cris | December 5, 2008 11:12 AM
I wonder if (c), which was also last week's Friday Cephalopod, is the first-ever Pharyngula / Cute Overload crossover.
Posted by: Troglodyte | December 5, 2008 11:35 AM
Is Megaleledone setebos named after Sycorax's god/father in the Tempest? If so, that's damn cool-- although I'm tempted to say it would be cooler if it was a reference to Dan Simmons' Ilium and Olympos.
Posted by: Mytho | December 5, 2008 1:10 PM
Stephen dixit:
Sugoi! That made my day! LOL
(LOL: which can be translated to Love Our Lord) ;)
jk
Posted by: Notagod | December 5, 2008 1:44 PM
(c) and even more so in (b):
Can haz forward facing eyez like primates?
Posted by: Dante | December 5, 2008 2:47 PM
PZ uses a Japanese word and *poof*, all the Japanese experts work their way out of the woodwork...
@13, if you wanted to be a true pedant, the correct romanization of ローマジ would actually be rōmaji in strict Hepburn romanization. Although using a double "o" is an accepted revision of the system, especially since the macron doesn't fall within the ISO-8859-1 character set.
Posted by: sarah | December 5, 2008 5:56 PM
Can we call a) this car up octopus?
Posted by: LL | December 5, 2008 6:39 PM
/drools
takoyaki!!! *grabs katsuo flakes and sauce*
Posted by: Monado | December 5, 2008 10:28 PM
Stop drooling! I'm getting all spittle-flecked!
Does anyone else see a baby face on (c)?
Posted by: Queequeg | December 6, 2008 12:49 AM
C) Is Swimmy the Pooh! We had him last week, didn't we?
He's such a cute widdle octoputhy, yes he is!
Posted by: Rena | December 6, 2008 5:38 AM
Hau hau! Kaaiiyo! Omochikaeri~!
Posted by: Kuki | December 6, 2008 6:23 AM
Sorry for being a pedantic arsehole but you can't say "tako o daisuki", since "daisuki" favours the particle "ga". "Tako ga daisuki" would still be rather unnatural in this context, though, given that it's clear that we're talking about the octopi. The use of "ga" would indicate that the subject is newly introduced in the discourse.
And I hate myself for posting this. I couldn't resist.
Posted by: Rowan | December 6, 2008 7:22 AM
PZ, that will teach you to use a Japanese word!
Kuki: correct on the use of 'ga', 'o' (actually Romanised as 'wo') does not work one little bit.
Seriously, why does it seem that everyone on the internet knows Japanese?!
Also, these would do finely in some takoyaki, I am heating up the pan in preparation...
Posted by: Mena | December 6, 2008 2:27 PM
Boy are they patient.
Posted by: LL | December 6, 2008 7:11 PM
"Sorry for being a pedantic arsehole but you can't say "tako o daisuki", since "daisuki" favours the particle "ga". "Tako ga daisuki" would still be rather unnatural in this context, though, given that it's clear that we're talking about the octopi. The use of "ga" would indicate that the subject is newly introduced in the discourse."
Also another reason of using "ga" here is that "daisuki", although a predicate, is not a verb therefore it cannot be used with "(w)o" (but ga is used with intransitive verb)
～≪終わり≫～