…and this is a 
Yes! I've seen the octopuses using coconut shells, and it's very, very cool. Here's the video:
(This is one of the dilemmas of having a popular blog. I just checked my inbox, and I've been getting notifications about this observation at the rate of about 20 per hour since yesterday. Thanks everyone, I really appreciate it, and you should feel free to send me links to appropriate material — but I may have to repost stuff two or three times to make sure everyone notices that I caught on to the really hot topics of the day.)
Life Science
Comments
Posted by: Cuttlefish, OM, CR
|
December 15, 2009 11:13 AM
And yet another (third?) completely different octopus/coconut video here (with German narration):
http://digitalcuttlefish.blogspot.com/2009/12/getting-ball-rolling.html
Posted by: artconserv
|
December 15, 2009 11:13 AM
This was a wonderful video--I loved how the octopus was walking while hanging onto that coconut as hard as it could. Thank you for posting this.
Posted by: cervantes
|
December 15, 2009 11:13 AM
I'd be a lot more impressed if it used a hammer and nails to construct a really big house out of multiple coconut shells.
Posted by: Nakarti | December 15, 2009 11:15 AM
Makes you take another wonder at the monster octopi in old movies: they're clearly smart enough to do all that, as long as they manage to get big enough.
Posted by: Janine, The Little Top Of Venom, OM
|
December 15, 2009 11:17 AM
Dammit, cervantes, you have dredged up memories of listening to Rush Limbaugh in the early nineties. He made the argument that dolphins and porpoises could not be that smart because they have not built cities at the bottom the sea.
Posted by: Glen Davidson
|
December 15, 2009 11:29 AM
Can it make a car that runs on coconuts?
OK, I suppose only the Professor can do that.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
Posted by: cervantes
|
December 15, 2009 11:30 AM
Forget about cetaceans, Rush obviously doesn't know about Sponge Bob and Patrick the sea star.
Posted by: https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawl3TpOVyxxwCT5cVU3M80c_cpxoMBZmiOQ
|
December 15, 2009 11:31 AM
Or you could set up a public google wave for others to suggest stuff to you.
Posted by: Joffan
|
December 15, 2009 11:45 AM
Just as amazing the second time around.
Posted by: CanonicalKoi
|
December 15, 2009 11:50 AM
We may never know how many swallows it takes to move a coconut, but at least we know how many octopuses.
I especially liked his/her final reaction to the camera. Annoyance? Frustration? Just wanting to (finally!) have a little privacy? It's so easy to anthropomorphize this.
Posted by: recovering catholic
|
December 15, 2009 11:51 AM
Why does this remind me of the walking bathtub that the evil little kids used to kidnap Santa (and the Easter Bunny) in The Nightmare Before Christmas?
Posted by: nejishiki
|
December 15, 2009 12:06 PM
You're a lot more patient than I would be. If I were getting spammed with emails telling me to go see a video that was already prominently featured on my page, my response would be something like "you people need to LURK FUCKING MORE."
Posted by: sasqwatch
|
December 15, 2009 12:07 PM
I wish I could walk around like that -- on the tips of my fingers and toes.
Posted by: Zeno
|
December 15, 2009 12:14 PM
I would like to point out that I did not send an e-mail to PZ about this video. (I specialize in more obscure items.)
Posted by: abb3w
|
December 15, 2009 12:17 PM
Nakarti: Makes you take another wonder at the monster octopi in old movies: they're clearly smart enough to do all that, as long as they manage to get big enough.
And the real reason they're attacking the submarine is they think it's a really big coconut shell, and they want it!
Posted by: SC OM
|
December 15, 2009 12:18 PM
The cameraman then went online to see if people were enjoying the video. Surfing, he came across a poll on whether "In God We Trust" should be removed from the currency. Just as he was casting the 11-millionth vote, a flood hit. When the rescue workers came to tell him to evacuate, he replied “Don’t worry about me. I have faith that God will save me.” Unable to change his mind, they drove on without him...
Posted by: Sven DiMilo
|
December 15, 2009 12:23 PM
hee hee
(boat, helicopter...)
Hey, PZ, didja see that meme about the cat up in the ceiling?
Posted by: PZ Myers
|
December 15, 2009 12:24 PM
I must emphasize that I am NOT complaining about lots of people sending me email notices about this. It's good stuff. I'd rather an excess than that everyone sits and assumes someone else sent it, so no one does.
Posted by: littlejohn | December 15, 2009 12:37 PM
On the off chance this post makes it (I'm an old guy who doesn't know how to register or whatever it is), Keith Olbermann played this clip last night.
Someone mentioned this was an example of "tool-using" by the octopus, which would suggest hermit crabs have been using "tools" forever. It seems to me it doesn't qualify as a tool unless the critter modified it in some deliberate way, like chimps stripping leaves off twigs to hunt termites.
Also, Olbermann pointed out that somewhere a mermaid is missing her bathing suit.
Posted by: Tom Wood | December 15, 2009 12:39 PM
Proof that coconut shells were designed by God so that they fit perfectly under and over an octopus.
What more proof of Him do you people need?
Posted by: gmholde | December 15, 2009 12:42 PM
Wow, so the AGW Skeptic's lead scientist has been located.
Posted by: skylyre
|
December 15, 2009 12:44 PM
@recovering catholic
Those little scampering legs were screaming Tim Burton when I watched it.
Posted by: Janine, She Wolf Of Pharyngula, OM | December 15, 2009 12:48 PM
SC, you forgot about the Marine punching the professor.
Posted by: Lynna, OM
|
December 15, 2009 12:49 PM
I was going to send PZ an annoying email about the octopus/coconut miracle, but then I found out that the octopus was not mormon.
Posted by: Sven DiMilo
|
December 15, 2009 12:54 PM
Behavioral-biology types often parse fine lines between goal-directed object use, tool use, tool modification, tool making, etc.
Posted by: John Emerson | December 15, 2009 12:57 PM
Our nearest common ancestor to the octopus is the urbilaterian, which is hypothesized to have existed (no fossil evidence) at least 555 million years ago. So apparently the tool-using gene is present pretty much everywhere, but is not expressed in clams and rotifers.
Posted by: Nick
|
December 15, 2009 12:59 PM
Okay... That's just COOL. Cthulu would be proud.
Posted by: Sven DiMilo
|
December 15, 2009 1:07 PM
phylogenetic bracketing ftw
Posted by: Glen Davidson
|
December 15, 2009 1:09 PM
Well you know, PZ, there is this poll about whether or not "In God we trust" should be on our coins...
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
Posted by: amphiox | December 15, 2009 1:20 PM
20 per hour? Why, that's just one magnitude lower than spam-rate.
Posted by: Strider | December 15, 2009 1:23 PM
Wasn't this footage shown WAY back in Attenborough's "Trials of Life" program? I would swear I've seen it before relatively long ago.
Posted by: TikiHead | December 15, 2009 1:28 PM
PZ, I always assume you've seen anything ceph-related already.
Posted by: amphiox | December 15, 2009 1:29 PM
#3:
Give 'em time. . . .
#5:
Give 'em time. . . . (And are we really, absolutely certain they haven't already? :-))
#19:
To simplify a complex issue, modifying the object would constitute tool-making, but not necessary for tool using. Then there's the issue of whether the behavior is learned (indicating cognitive flexibility) or innate/preprogrammed.
But I would say that the use of two coconut shells counts as modification, particularly when you wouldn't expect any octopus to have had much chance to get prior experience with whole coconuts in the original setting, attached to the tree.
Posted by: Ben | December 15, 2009 1:30 PM
I thought it was octopi, not octopuses.
Posted by: Kevin DeGraaf | December 15, 2009 1:47 PM
How about a "submit link to PZ" Web form/script/database? You wouldn't have all these emails clogging your inbox, and it could easily sort submissions by popularity. If you don't feel like writing it yourself, there are plenty of LAMP nerds here who would gladly set this up for you, myself included.
Posted by: Don | December 15, 2009 1:48 PM
When it paints it magnolia, adds laminate flooring and a patio and sells it on for a quick profit, then I'll be impressed.
Posted by: Planecrash | December 15, 2009 1:58 PM
Just create a filter/rule in your email client that searches for the URL of the video, or some other common element, like "octopus" or "coconut", and send these messages to your trash.
Posted by: Bob Williams | December 15, 2009 1:59 PM
Not only did the octopus transport a coconut halve, he transported it to another coconut halve, and joined the two, fitting the smaller inside the larger. Navigation, memory, purpose? Seems to be a lot here.
Posted by: Lorne | December 15, 2009 2:14 PM
So we now know the truth behind how coconut shells go to King Author and Knights of the Round Table.
Posted by: B | December 15, 2009 2:17 PM
Hey, PZ, did you see this great video of an octopus carrying a coconut? Here's a link, you should put it up on your site:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/12/id_better_mention_this_again.php
Posted by: Sven DiMilo
|
December 15, 2009 2:17 PM
Yay!
Thoughts?
Posted by: Timothy (TRiG) | December 15, 2009 2:29 PM
The plural of octopus is definitely not octopi. The usual form is octopuses, but if you're feeling geeky you might want to go for octopodes.
TRiG.
Posted by: Greg Laden
|
December 15, 2009 2:30 PM
Hey, PZ, have you seen this thing about the octopus that uses coconuts or something?
Posted by: Timothy (TRiG) | December 15, 2009 2:37 PM
Only ignorami say octopi.
TRiG.
Posted by: Silič O'Nopolitanopoulos, Färschdbischuf Beesknees aus Ulm und Klein Elguth, Elector Pharynguline.
|
December 15, 2009 2:41 PM
May I make a (socialist) suggestion?
Anyone who emails you about something prominently displayed on your blog*, has to go to Donors Choose and make a donation as penance.
*Has anyone ever actually emailed you one of your own posts, asking if you've seen this?
PS: The plural of "octopus" is "blæksprutter" (quite conveniently works for "squid", too).
Posted by: John Emerson | December 15, 2009 2:41 PM
Octopus is a Latinized Greek word coined by scientists. "Octopuses" is the regular English plural. "Octopi" is by analogy to rhinoceri, but it's grammatically wrong for Greek. Octopodes is a good Greek plural if you want to use it, though octopus should be "oktopous" or thereabouts.
IIRC it's even more complicated than that, but that's what I remember.
Posted by: Tatarize | December 15, 2009 2:50 PM
This video is awesome. Somebody should sent it to PZ.
Posted by: Natasha Yar-Routh
|
December 15, 2009 2:50 PM
It's coconuts now but wait until the little eight armed thieves start grabbing tools from sea side construction sites. Before you no it death rays and walking crab tanks to overrun the world.
Posted by: TSFN | December 15, 2009 2:51 PM
CanonicalKoi @10
What do you mean, African or European swallows?
Posted by: mohammed allah | December 15, 2009 2:51 PM
Watch and read mohammed T-shirt art from Sweden at,
http://www.mohammedt-shirt.com
Posted by: SEF
|
December 15, 2009 2:53 PM
The word "octopus" isn't even in my 1867 English dictionary. It only has "octopod". There's no "okto..." at all.
Posted by: Silič O'Nopolitanopoulos, Färschdbischuf Beesknees aus Ulm und Klein Elguth, Elector Pharynguline.
|
December 15, 2009 2:53 PM
Nevermind.
Posted by: Josh
|
December 15, 2009 2:54 PM
Actually, it's data are.
*runs*
Posted by: Peter G.
|
December 15, 2009 2:57 PM
Isn't science wonderful. At last the age old question about the presence of coconuts in medieval England is answered. Neither European nor African swallows were involved. The coconuts were hurled onto the beaches by octopuses who had outgrown them. That settles that.
Posted by: Sarah | December 15, 2009 3:15 PM
I was amused by the way the octopus checked out the camera at the end of the video--lots of opportunity for anthropomorphic comments to be injected here.
Posted by: blf
|
December 15, 2009 3:27 PM
The octopus did not help the coconut migrate. The octopus operated the fecking big outboard motor that migrated the island to Coconut Central where they are cheap and easily found.
Posted by: Sven DiMilo
|
December 15, 2009 3:36 PM
But "octopodes" would translate as "eight feet," whereas what we wish to express is "eight-footed animals."
Posted by: ambulocetus | December 15, 2009 3:37 PM
Definitely the smartest invertebrate; that's why I no longer eat their delicious tentacles. (MMM, teriyaki)
Posted by: Sven DiMilo
|
December 15, 2009 3:38 PM
Josh @#53: you're goddamn right it is
Posted by: Nusubito | December 15, 2009 3:43 PM
What evolution took away over millions of years, intelligence brought back over the course of a lifetime. Pretty cool, I think. Though I wonder if one octopus learned that trick a long time ago and transmitted it through 'culture', or if they each figure it out independently.
Posted by: mattb | December 15, 2009 3:44 PM
LMAO! I figured PZ would get bombarded about this one.
Posted by: Ultraevo | December 15, 2009 4:11 PM
Another NZ poll: http://www.stuff.co.nz/oddstuff/3149823/Theres-probably-no-God-coming-to-a-bus-near-you/
Have fun!
Posted by: Richard Eis
|
December 15, 2009 4:57 PM
I think its more about super intelligent coconut trees cruelly using humans and octopodes just to have their babies go swimming in style.
I mean who wouldn't want to ride the latest in octopode transportation around the bottom of the ocean.
Posted by: puseaus | December 15, 2009 5:06 PM
Any chance we could get these guys (the octopus family) to wear sweaters with a similar message.
Posted by: mrcreosote
|
December 15, 2009 5:10 PM
Meanwhile, hermit crabs remain unimpressed...
Posted by: littlejohn | December 15, 2009 5:27 PM
Since we know for certain that mermaids split coconuts in half to make bikini tops, doesn't that qualify as non-human use of tools?
Posted by: 'Tis Himself, OM
|
December 15, 2009 5:27 PM
Is the plural of mongoose "polygoose"?
Posted by: marilyn | December 15, 2009 5:32 PM
enjoy..till hermit crabs debunk the fake...
Posted by: And-U-Say | December 15, 2009 5:33 PM
I for one welcome our octipode overlords.
Tool making? I don't think the item needs to be modified to be called a tool. Pick up the femur of a dead gazelle and you have a tool right there, fit to eventually allow you to build a space station.
An octopus seems so intelligent sometimes (perhaps its my imagination) that I have to wonder. If we screw up, maybe these guys will be the next in line to be the intelligent species on earth. Then they will have to deal with the creationists.
Posted by: https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawncr0FDc8gdl7yJBz0SJ15D0etcTIOtL0s
|
December 15, 2009 5:42 PM
Linksnip from #62: Theres-probably-no-God-coming-to-a-bus-near-you/
These days, there's probably no bus coming either.
Somebody somewhere compared this octococonuttiness to using an umbrella rather than, hermit-crabwise, moving into a shell and staying there; the coconut shells are useless until flipped over and ducked* under, as a furled umbrella is not good for its avowed purpose.
I suspect that the "tool-using vs not-really" splintering is, like the related "only-humans-can-whatever" argument, a mug's game. Fortunately, I don't have to opine on the divide. I just get to re-run those clips and giggle helplessly. And read The Cuttlefish's responses, ditto. Yay!
Ron Sullivan
*no matter how much the duck weighs
Posted by: consciousness razor
|
December 15, 2009 5:45 PM
That's a good question, 'Tis Himself.What about all of these???!!!1!1!?
monarch butterfly - polyarch butterfly
Monday - Polyday
money - polyey
Mongolian - Polygolian
Mongoloid - Polygoloid
monk - polyk
monkey - polykey
monsignor - polysignor
monsoon - polysoon
monster - polyster
montage - polytage
month - polyth
Posted by: hackerguitar
|
December 15, 2009 8:07 PM
I wonder what the weight of the coconut shell is versus the body weight of the octopus? Even allowing for buoyancy, it suggests that our cephalopod overlords are prodigiously strong for their size.
SO.COOL.
Posted by: Gregory Greenwood
|
December 15, 2009 8:08 PM
Now remember everyone, when our Lord Cthulhu awakens from his sleep of ages we the faithful must house him in a giant, genetically engineered coconut.
It is obvious that this noble octopus, being an entity of clearly superior intellect to we vertebrates, was sent as a prophet to show us the accomodation preference of our tentacled overlord.
What? It is no more crazy than the stuff the Xians come out with everyday.
Kneel before the tentacled chosen of Cthulhu lest we know thee for a heretic!
Posted by: mythusmage
|
December 15, 2009 9:10 PM
I recall video of octopodes using amphora for shelter in the Mediterranean. Anybody else?
Posted by: whitebird
|
December 15, 2009 9:26 PM
@36: Is this testing whether it's an octopus or an "interior designer", Mr. Don?
Posted by: https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawncr0FDc8gdl7yJBz0SJ15D0etcTIOtL0s
|
December 15, 2009 9:51 PM
Did y'all see the second link Cuttlefish embedded? Forget tools; it's a vehicle!
Ron Sullivan
Posted by: Terskac | December 15, 2009 10:09 PM
Don't you mean polygeese?
Posted by: Mark
|
December 15, 2009 10:14 PM
I may have crossed some sort of line...I almost turned into a spittle-blasting Bill Donohue clone upon hearing some Weather Channel flunky describe the coconut-wielding octopus of the now viral (surely thanks to Pharyngulites) video refer to our eight-limbed friend as a "crustacean"!!!!!
This means I must surely have fallen prey to the evil atheist spell (utterly unlike the mindless groupies for Jesus, who have, we all know, the most excellent reasons for believing as they do).
Posted by: Camels With Hammers | December 15, 2009 10:58 PM
Well it seems pretty clear that since the octopus fits so perfectly inside the coconut, it's impossible to doubt that coconuts were intelligently designed by a benign deity who made coconuts for octopuses to use for their protection. And it only further makes sense to infer that at one point in time that same God must have wanted to his octopus creations to know him and so incarnated himself in the form of an octopus who was miraculously both fully God and fully octopus.
Posted by: Ragutis
|
December 16, 2009 1:49 AM
Not sure if it was Sir David, but I remember seeing something similar as well. IIRC, it was the same area, but the observed octopus was using a bottle for a hideout. Didn't lug it about, however. Might have been a NOVA special.
I'd be interested in how common this coconut thing is/becomes. We know Octopods have great problem-solving skills, but are they figuring this out on their own, or are individuals copying another octopus' good idea that they witnessed?
Totally off-topic, but WTF: Does anyone here remember a kid's/YA book about a boy that brings home a Mermaid's Purse and hatches a shark at home, which then proceeds to fly? For the life of me I can't find or remember the title.
Posted by: Anti-theist | December 16, 2009 2:27 AM
I am not a sci nerd like the majority who post here. However, that is really F'N awesome. Way cool!
I guess I am a nerd after all.
Posted by: Citizen of the Cosmos
|
December 16, 2009 3:11 AM
I heard this is the first case of an invertebrate using tools, is that true?
That video was so cool.
Posted by: Wayne Robinson
|
December 16, 2009 4:31 AM
Yes, impressive, but what does Eric Hovind think about it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VstjwnSP91U&feature=related
Posted by: eli | December 16, 2009 7:46 AM
I absolutely love octopus and not only because P.Z. love them ;).They are one of the most mesmerizing creatures on the planet.I even had the pleasure to see one close and personal when I was swimming at Mediterranean sea with only goggles.It was so little and cute.Actually because of him I went scuba diving.
By the way I am pretty sure I have stumbled upon video like this before.Sadly I can't remember where.
And I am not surprised that octopuses are using coconut shells - after all they are very intelligent creatures.
Posted by: eli | December 16, 2009 8:03 AM
Aha!I remembered where I watched something like this:
http://www.cracked.com/article/143_8-ingenious-ways-animals-outsmart-predators_p2
Posted by: (((Billy))) The Atheist | December 16, 2009 9:41 AM
A friend and I just watched this. We both had the same thought: West Virginia mobile homes (truth in blogging: I used to live in WV.
I think this may argue against octopi intelligence if, rather than build cities, they live in mobile home parks. Then again, there aren't nearly as many tornadoes as there are in, say, Kansas, right?
Posted by: mikeprocario.myopenid.com
|
December 16, 2009 11:50 AM
I first saw this link in Uncertain Principles, http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2009/12/links_for_2009-12-16.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+scienceblogs%2Funcertainprinciples+%28Uncertain+Principles%29. I thought this should have been on Pharyngula. I came and found it was already posted, so I did not need to email it to PZ.
However, you have not posted the great Onion story on how the Sumerians reacted when God created the earth.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/sumerians_look_on_in_confusion_as
Posted by: Strider | December 16, 2009 1:31 PM
@Ragutis
That's SO funny you mentioned that because I have very fond memories of the book in question; I read it in grade school. If I recall correctly it's called "The Shark In Charlie's Window".
Posted by: mythusmage
|
December 17, 2009 5:19 AM
I have reported on this crime...
Mollusc Housing Fraud
Posted by: mythusmage
|
December 17, 2009 5:47 AM
#87
I got this reaction from the Great Dragon Abzu (aka Tiamat, aka Leviathan, aka The Serpent etc.) regarding the Onion's story concerning God's creation of the Heavens and the Earth when both already existed. You'll note that Abzu was not happy with his former husband*
*N.B.: Abzu is what you'd call gender flexible.
Posted by: Calilasseia | December 17, 2009 10:01 AM
For those who are interested, the full scientific paper is available as a free download, courtesy of here. That page has links to the two Quicktime movies toward the bottom, and a link to the downloadable PDF of the scientific paper near the to right hand corner. Don't all kill me in the stampede now! :)
Posted by: Sven DiMilo
|
December 17, 2009 10:13 AM
Holy shit!!!
I must second Ron Sullivan; if you haven't yet you MUST VIEW THIS FOOTAGE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPnd_KzGdHI
Posted by: Peter Magellan
|
December 17, 2009 6:02 PM
So how is it that an octopus carrying a coconut shell is a tool-using invertebrate, whereas a hermit crab carrying a conch shell isn't? Just wondering...
But apart from that, agreed - awesome! And fun.
Posted by: hades
|
January 25, 2010 2:17 PM
just to point out no necessarily sign of intelligence. Cadis flies and crabs do similar things and in some ways more complex and theyn are evolved behaviours. Not cognitively aquired.