Enteroctopus dofleini
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
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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: Behold the shadow of your doooooom!
Category: Cephalopods • Organisms
Posted on: March 12, 2010 6:03 AM, by PZ Myers
Find more posts in: 
Life Science
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TrackBack URL for this entry: http://scienceblogs.com/mt/pings/133513
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Comments
Posted by: JamesPGH
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March 12, 2010 6:19 AM
Sub-Halloween!
Posted by: ursulamajor
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March 12, 2010 6:34 AM
It's the Borg Queen!
Posted by: KKBundy
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March 12, 2010 7:55 AM
I'll be damned; it does look like the Borg queen. Is that Data in the corner?
Gorgeous shot though! So Lovecraftian.
Blessed Atheist Bible Study @ http://blessedatheist.com/
Posted by: Sven DiMilo
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March 12, 2010 8:03 AM
of course, unlike the Borg queen, the "head" is not a head, but rather the mantle & visceral mass (basically the "abdomen" equivalent).
but yeah, there's a resemblence...
Posted by: thethyme
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March 12, 2010 8:39 AM
Cathulhu Wakes and is Rising
Posted by: Holytape
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March 12, 2010 9:02 AM
Great, first earthquakes and now this. And these creatures of the deep are truly evil and unstoppable. Any attempt at organizing a resistance to this tentacled horde is doomed to failure, as it will inevitably lead to an argument over the correct plural term 'Octopi, Octopusses, or Octopodes' which inevitably leads to lots of blood shed.
Shnoah's ark
Posted by: Tumsup
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March 12, 2010 9:15 AM
Cthulhu? Not to worry, there's a narwal nearby to stop him eating ye.
Posted by: https://me.yahoo.com/a/K2PNji0at.txAjzTShOlxwLuFcVVFwbnng--#bd813
|
March 12, 2010 10:35 AM
A sea bishop.
Posted by: Roxolan
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March 12, 2010 11:03 AM
Reminds me a lot of the Slenderman.
Posted by: Janine, The Little Top Of Venom, OM
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March 12, 2010 11:08 AM
Is this related to a certain Harpy Of Doooooom?
Posted by: Givesgoodemail
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March 12, 2010 11:21 AM
This lovely picture put me in a mood to write this.
If you squint really hard, the Eight-Legged One looks a little like Michelle Bachmann.
Posted by: Glen Davidson
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March 12, 2010 11:23 AM
There's a sucker born every inch of its tentacles.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
Posted by: Mike Wagner
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March 12, 2010 12:05 PM
If I saw that in the water unexpectedly I might leave my own trail of ink.
I think the coolest thing I've ever encountered in the water was snorkeling in a bay here on Prince Edward Island as a kid. We swam into a wall of jelly globules, the size and shape of ping pong balls, with no visible stingers or orifice. The strangest "jellyfish" I'd ever seen. (At least that's what we figured they were) And there were millions of them. We cruised around in them for quite a while once we established there wasn't any stinging going on.
It *might* have been the eggs of body snatchers, but I'm not sure. Would anyone like to go for a walk down to the water? It's perfectly safe...
Trust me.
---
Even creationists have the right to free (dumb) speech.
http://bit.ly/8X7OPH
Posted by: Breton
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March 12, 2010 12:24 PM
Mike Wagner,
You likely swam into a mass of comb-jellies or Ctenophores,organims which are jelly-like but are not true jellyfish (not even in teh same phylum, last I heard). Very common in Atlantic Canada waters, especially during the colder months. There are several species here in Nova Scotia, of which the spherical ones (Pleurobrachia spp) are the most common,in my experience. really neat critters, I love watching them move underwater..
Posted by: Nick
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March 12, 2010 12:28 PM
I dunno. It kinda looks like a cross between Batman and Cthuhlu.
Posted by: Die Anyway
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March 12, 2010 12:55 PM
Iconic to say the least. Wait... look... I think I see Jeezus... no, no, it's just the Virgin Mary again.
And damn you Tumsup... now I've got narwhals on the brain again. 'Cuz they are so awesome. :-)
Posted by: David Marjanović
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March 12, 2010 1:14 PM
Indeed, one of these groups is more closely related to us than to the other.
People used to think it was obvious that the comb-jellies are closer to us triploblastic animals, but that has become very controversial.
Posted by: Mike Wagner
|
March 12, 2010 1:29 PM
@Breton #14
Thanks for the info :)
I'm glad they didn't turn out to have some powerful toxin or a digestive enzyme that rendered me into paste, and left my disappearance a legend for the county.
I guess it was silly swimming into the unknown but damn it if wasn't cool. :)
---
Even creationists have the right to free(dumb) of speech.
http://bit.ly/8X7OPH
Posted by: Bastion Of Sass
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March 12, 2010 2:16 PM
I thought today's cephalopod look vaguely familiar:
http://www.007museum.com/Spectrering.jpg
Posted by: Sven DiMilo
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March 12, 2010 2:25 PM
Not so fast...the most recent study I've seen resurrected the Coelenterata (i.e. a diploblastic sister clade to bilaterians):
Philippe, H., et al. (2009). Phylogenomics Revives Traditional Views on Deep Animal Relationships. http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2809%2900805-7
(Note also the monophyletic Porifera...that paper made me happy.)
Posted by: jcmartz.myopenid.com
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March 12, 2010 3:25 PM
Looks menacing. Too bad is not halloween yet.
Posted by: David Marjanović
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March 12, 2010 4:46 PM
Ah. That's a paper I haven't seen yet; I'll try to download it tomorrow.
However, I can't comment it anyway. Conflict of interest, you see. The thirteenth of the twenty authors is the head of the doctoral school I depend on... :-]
(Of course, that's another reason to read it.)
Posted by: Richard Austin
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March 12, 2010 5:36 PM
For some reason, this picture reminds me of a shot of the Zerg Guardian from Starcraft...
http://www.scarea.pl/units/zguardian_g.jpg
... which is all we need.
Posted by: scarygirl
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March 13, 2010 12:00 AM
D'awww, it wants a hug.