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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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More articles by PZ Myers can be found on Freethoughtblogs at the new Pharyngula!
Friday Cephalopod: Tremoctopus!
Category: Cephalopods • Organisms
Posted on: March 6, 2009 4:38 PM, by PZ Myers
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Comments
Posted by: PZ Myers
|
March 6, 2009 4:43 PM
You get two today. No one's complaining, right?
Posted by: JohnnieCanuck | March 6, 2009 4:43 PM
Mamma?
Posted by: Zeroeye | March 6, 2009 4:45 PM
Behold, the Goddess of the deep!
Posted by: Leigh Williams | March 6, 2009 4:48 PM
Beautiful creature. Any idea how big she is? I get no sense of scale from the video, and the short article doesn't say.
Posted by: SC, OM | March 6, 2009 4:50 PM
Wow. Trippy.
Posted by: Nangleator | March 6, 2009 4:50 PM
Did I not see some of that dress tearing off near the end? And red wings opening up when the submersible got too close...
I may not sleep well tonight.
Posted by: GeoffR | March 6, 2009 4:51 PM
That's amazing,what's going on there?
Is that trailing membrane some sort of a mantle that can be shed? I imagine it would either attract prey, or appear large to discourage predators.
Posted by: AnneH | March 6, 2009 5:00 PM
What a magnificent creature!
My completely uninformed guess is that the shedding of part of her mantle is a response to a threat, something like those lizards that can lose and then regrow their tails. The lights of the ROV might have spooked her...
(again, only guessing, I really have no idea.)
Posted by: Fatmop | March 6, 2009 5:01 PM
Yeah I'm wondering what the big ol' veil thing is myself.
Posted by: Glen Davidson | March 6, 2009 5:03 PM
Slime takes wing and soars.
Joking, mostly. It's a beautiful beast, which is why it seemed a bit odd to keep thinking "slime" while watching.
Glen Davidson
http://tinyurl.com/6mb592
Posted by: Hank Bones | March 6, 2009 5:04 PM
Thats amazing. Kinda reminds me of a phoenix, with the blood-red color at the end.
Anyone actually know whats going on here?
Posted by: Chris Davis | March 6, 2009 5:04 PM
That, sir, is clearly an aquatic witch.
Posted by: Steve_C | March 6, 2009 5:05 PM
So beautiful. Off to deep sea to see what that was about.
Posted by: David Lockwood | March 6, 2009 5:05 PM
PZ, just wondering if you were aware of the book "What it is" by Lynda Barry. See:
http://www.amazon.com/What-Lynda-Barry/dp/1897299354/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236376610&sr=8-1
It's a book about creativity and uses the metaphor of waking your inner "Magic Squid" It actually applies to nearly all forms of creativity and is quite unique." Amazon lists it as a "Best Book of 2008."
Posted by: Sven DiMilo | March 6, 2009 5:07 PM
Prom dress.
Posted by: Yarcofin | March 6, 2009 5:08 PM
... did it shed it's "tail" and immediately regenerate a new one at the end, or what was I seeing there? Something clearly broke off.
Posted by: Bullet Magnet | March 6, 2009 5:11 PM
When the revolution comes, these guys will be head of mind control operations, right? They are more than qualified for hypnosis.
Posted by: Fernando Magyar | March 6, 2009 5:11 PM
Is that what is known as a Veiled Octopus?
Posted by: BlindRobin | March 6, 2009 5:14 PM
WOW !!!! I think I just had a feeling of overwhelming awe.
shudder
Posted by: BJN | March 6, 2009 5:15 PM
Answers (from a link at the Deep Sea News article):
http://www.tolweb.org/tremoctopus
Posted by: Adrian Burd | March 6, 2009 5:18 PM
More info at
http://www.tolweb.org/tremoctopus
Posted by: Sven DiMilo | March 6, 2009 5:22 PM
Thanks for the link, BJN and A.B.
An extra-cool tidbit from there:
And amazing photos here.
Posted by: Tor A H | March 6, 2009 5:23 PM
Spec-bloody-tacular!
Posted by: marcus | March 6, 2009 5:23 PM
I dub thee... wait for it... Peacoctopus!
Posted by: Patricia the Vulgar, OM | March 6, 2009 5:32 PM
Marcus - That's funny!
Posted by: Goldenmane | March 6, 2009 5:47 PM
Awesome.
Posted by: Keanus | March 6, 2009 5:47 PM
Salome had nothing on this beauty. Especially the accompanying music. I'd go down in a submersible to watch that any day!
Posted by: SquidBrandon | March 6, 2009 5:51 PM
It's got a built-in electronic keyboard. How awesome is that?!
Posted by: Qwerty | March 6, 2009 5:55 PM
Now I have that tune running through my head along with a memory of the octopus.
Posted by: Jackal | March 6, 2009 6:03 PM
From Tremoctopus:
Autotomy: "reflex separation of a part (as an appendage) from the body : division of the body into two or more pieces." There's a word I don't use enough.
Posted by: Der letzte Schweinebrat | March 6, 2009 6:17 PM
Raivo Pommer
raimo1@hot.ee
LBBW-Bank krisehilfe
Die Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) wird fünf Milliarden Euro bekommen, um die Folgen der Finanzkrise abzufedern - in Form einer Kapitalerhöhung. Doch möglicherweise braucht Deutschlands größte Landesbank noch mehr Hilfe. Einem Bericht der Schwäbischen Zeitung zufolge benötigt das Institut zur Absicherung von risikobehafteten Papieren Garantien in Höhe von 16 Milliarden Euro. Die Bank wollte dazu am Freitag keine Stellung nehmen.
SPD-Fraktionschef Claus Schmiedel, der Mitglied im LBBW-Verwaltungsrat ist, sagte: "Die Zahl ist aus der Luft gegriffen." Man müsse sich darauf konzentrieren, nur die stark schwankenden Papiere abzusichern. "Denn jede zusätzliche Abschirmung kostet Geld und belastet die Gewinne." Den Umfang wollte er nicht nennen.
Wie die Zeitung aus der Bank nahestehenden Kreisen erfuhr, sollen die Papiere aus dem Kreditersatzgeschäft, die großen Schwankungen unterworfen sind, in eine Zweckgesellschaft ausgegliedert werden. Finanzkreisen zufolge soll es sich bei dem Volumen um etliche Milliarden handeln. Dadurch sollen sie die Bilanz der LBBW nicht mehr belasten.
Posted by: Craig M | March 6, 2009 6:23 PM
Clearly an Antarean Merperson.
Posted by: SquidProCrow | March 6, 2009 6:25 PM
No snark, just . . . awed silence.
Posted by: Sven DiMilo | March 6, 2009 6:26 PM
SquidProCrow is an excellent nym.
Posted by: Jeanette | March 6, 2009 6:36 PM
Ooh!
Posted by: Allen N | March 6, 2009 6:52 PM
Now that's what I'm talkin' about! Abso-fuckin-lutely amazing. Beats the fuck out of the puerile natterings of Pete on another thread.
Posted by: MikeG | March 6, 2009 6:52 PM
What gives? No one has mentioned Spawn's cloak yet? I thought you folks were nerds.
Posted by: Somnolent Aphid | March 6, 2009 7:21 PM
Let me guess... Australian?
Posted by: Weemaryanne | March 6, 2009 8:25 PM
Magnifique!
Posted by: 'Tis Himself, Quel Dommage
|
March 6, 2009 8:29 PM
To echo Weemaryanne, neato spiffy keen!
Posted by: dwarf zebu | March 6, 2009 8:40 PM
Superheroine of the cephalopod world, she has a cape and everything!
Posted by: Paulino | March 6, 2009 9:06 PM
Wow! WOOOOW!!
Da Mollusca rulez!
Posted by: Crudely Wrott | March 6, 2009 9:20 PM
An underwater aurora.
Silk pulled through the water.
And it lives and has business to attend to.
Every discovery like this, of something really different, makes me feel just a bit more secure. The more complex the warp and weave of life, the tighter we are knit into the fabric of the universe.
I'm smiling right now.
E Pluribus Unum
Posted by: AVSN | March 6, 2009 10:00 PM
One of the few cool things I've seen here. One point on the "I'll come back again" ratings.
Posted by: Big City | March 6, 2009 10:03 PM
It's like Spawn's cloak!
Posted by: gypsytag | March 6, 2009 11:49 PM
Damn that was freaky awesome.
I love coming here.
Posted by: gypsytag | March 6, 2009 11:53 PM
And no your highness and mighty PZ, no one is complaining. we will dutifully read and watch whatever you post.
I don't know what other people's reasons are but i'm addicted.....
Is that the proper euphemism for having no life?
Posted by: Scott Hatfield, OM | March 6, 2009 11:58 PM
I....slack-jawed amazement.
How completely sinister and wonderful.
Posted by: Nominal Egg | March 7, 2009 12:10 AM
OK, I have to admit some ignorance here.
How do you know it's a female?
Posted by: JohnnieCanuck | March 7, 2009 2:06 AM
By the size. The male is very, very much smaller. According to Wikipedia, this creature has the greatest sexual dimorphism of any non-microscopic animal. Mass ratio is 40,000:1.
The blanket is part of its autotomic predator avoidance strategy.
Its common name is blanket octopus.
Posted by: Onotheo | March 7, 2009 3:56 AM
NO! It's creepy ... and beautiful.
This is a very show-off species, does some persist just for that reason?
Posted by: Rystefn | March 7, 2009 5:36 AM
That is the second most beautiful thing I've seen today. In a couple of hours, I'll wake up the first and share it with her. Thank you so much for introducing me to something this amazing and wonderful. It's an amazing feeling to be awed by the beauty of the natural world.
Posted by: puseaus | March 7, 2009 6:34 AM
Richard Dawkins may have his castle, but he don't have this one! Where in Oklahoma can I see this?
Posted by: Sili | March 7, 2009 7:52 AM
Why red?
Or is it a means of hiding in the deep, rather than a warning colour?
Posted by: MikeG | March 7, 2009 8:47 AM
Thanks, Big City.
Sili, yeah. Lots of deep sea critters are red, and the leading hypothesis is that it's to hide. The red color in some others that are mostly clear is to hide whatever bioluminescent dinner they just had.
Posted by: True Bob | March 7, 2009 11:21 AM
This pisses me off so much, especially in reporting that should know better:
Friggin idiots. Maybe their blood pressure is 10 times lower and their body temp is twice as cool as well. Mind pointing out where the reference point is?
Posted by: marko | March 7, 2009 12:07 PM
Now I see where the idea behind the look and movement of some of the underwarer aliens in "Abyss" comes from.
Posted by: Ron Sullivan | March 7, 2009 12:57 PM
Ah, that was lovely. I saw it last night after spending the day at an orchid expo, and somehow it all rhymed beautifully. So many gorgeous, various, amazing ways of being alive.
O the world is so full of a number of things
I am sure we should all be as happy as ... biologists!
Posted by: Lord Zero | March 7, 2009 3:02 PM
Indeed, i agree with Ron here. Becoming a biologist
was the best decision what i ever made.
Being so close to understand how life works never
ceases to give me happiness.
Posted by: Mbee | March 7, 2009 3:21 PM
Fascinating! What evolution can produce is truly wonderful.
The rest of humanity is missing out by keeping their heads stuck inside old books!
Posted by: Noni Mausa | March 7, 2009 7:29 PM
What's going on? Well, the link tells us that these beauties probably only deploy their wings when frightened and being pursued.
So what we have here is the oceanic equivalent of a romantic Victorian heroine fleeing a fate worse than death across the wild moors in her tearing and trailing silken wedding dress.
It is probably dark.
And stormy.
Noni
Posted by: John Phillips, FCD | March 7, 2009 7:43 PM
PZ, you can post vids like that all day long and I doubt if many here would complain. There have been some awesome previous Friday Cephs, but this one has to be the very very best for a long time. I just watched this SuperCeph slackjawed with awe, FSMdamn I love this planet.
And a big thanks to those who posted additional links.
Posted by: eyesoars | March 7, 2009 8:23 PM
Squid pie?
http://skippyslist.com/2007/07/09/cephalopod-surprise/
Tip of the hat to Bruce Schneier @ http://www.schneier.com/blog/
/es
Posted by: Thomas True | March 8, 2009 8:22 AM
Not only is it a beautiful animal but it plays wonderful music. I wonder what evolutionary function the music serves this octopus or squid?
Posted by: Kevin Schreck | March 8, 2009 2:08 PM
I had never heard of this creature before. Cephalopods truly are spectacular.