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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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Sometimes the gods have no taste at all. They allow sunrises and sunsets in ridiculous pink and blue hues that any professional artist would dismiss as the work of some enthsiastic amateur who'd never looked at a real sunset. This was one of those sunrises. It was the kind of sunrise a man looks at and says, 'No real sunrise could paint the sky Surgical Appliance Pink.' Nevertheless, it was beautiful.
(Terry Pratchett, The Thief of Time)
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More articles by PZ Myers can be found on Freethoughtblogs at the new Pharyngula!
Category: Cephalopods • Organisms
Posted on: June 22, 2010 5:23 AM, by PZ Myers
People are always asking me, "Why squid?" Here's why.
The cool thing about biology, though, is that you could pick any taxon and make a video about how awesome its members are. Squid just have the advantage of the exotic, living in environments unfamiliar to humans, and so they leap out at us as particularly weird and alien.
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Comments
Posted by: Andyo
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June 22, 2010 5:29 AM
And I always thought it was about gastronomy and not biology...
Posted by: John Morales
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June 22, 2010 5:48 AM
I wish I had tentacles!
Posted by: Ye Olde Blacksmith
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June 22, 2010 6:14 AM
Absolutely frickin' beautiful!
Posted by: Birger Johansson
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June 22, 2010 6:18 AM
Another cool thing about cephalopods, they have developed large brains despite having no myelin sheating around their neurons (humans who lose the myelin eventually die from "Lou Gehrig's disease" aka ALS).
Squid get around it by having exceptionally broad neurons, which works well enough for them but probably would be impractical for another ecological nieche.
I have often wondered what squid might accoplish if a bit of genetic engineering provided them with myelin-sheated neurons, enabling them to develop more compact brain designs.
Posted by: Silič O'Nopolitanopoulos, Färschdbischuf Beesknees aus Ulm und Klein Elguth, Elector Pharynguline.
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June 22, 2010 6:29 AM
Who loves squid?
/private joke
Posted by: McCthulhu is taking ∞ to eat all the pi
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June 22, 2010 6:38 AM
Why not? Indeed! The same sentiment applies to any plant, animal, rock or space object. Intellectual curiosity is one of the few things that gives me hope for humanity, knowing there's people who want to study anything and everything just for the sake of knowing. It's the people who live in little brain cubicles that make the skin want to crawl. You're left there thinking what's wrong with this person, and thank my DNA I'm not like that!
Posted by: Bribase
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June 22, 2010 8:51 AM
Freaking amazing.
Did anyone else find themselves staring with dissapointed boredom at their hands and feet after watching that? First chance I get I'm going to swap them out for some tentacles.
B
Posted by: Jadehawk, cascadeuse féministe
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June 22, 2010 9:08 AM
while in Copenhagen, we ate at a restaurant that served "octopus with holy basil"; it was tempting :-) actually, extending their life-spans would probably be more conductive to having them "accomplish" things...Posted by: Birger Johansson
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June 22, 2010 9:27 AM
Jadehawk @ 8 : "actually, extending their life-spans would probably be more conductive to having them "accomplish" things..."
Good idea. There is a lot of work being done regarding why caloric restriction extends lifespan. If the positive effects can be emulated without adverse effects, I am all for doing life-extending GM on humans, cephalopods, grey parrots and all other big-brained entities.
Posted by: Squiddhartha
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June 22, 2010 9:58 AM
Cephalopods rule. (I'm actually a slightly bigger fan of octopuses than squid, but 'squid' makes for better puns.)
Posted by: morriganscrow
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June 22, 2010 9:59 AM
*delurks*
I particularly liked the one near the end that looked like a cartoon hippo with a Rasta 'do.
The way they swoop and soar through the water like streamlined birds, is beautiful to watch, and there is such intelligence and awareness in their eyes.
That is all.
*relurks*
Posted by: Mattir-ritated
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June 22, 2010 10:45 AM
Tentacles would be cool, but in the endless thread I proposed that a great rape self defense would be if we could cover our bodies with cnidocytes (jellyfish stinging cells) that could be deployed at will. Would totally eliminate the need for those South African anti-rape devices AND make assault difficult except for perpetrators wearing hazmat suits.
Can some genetic engineer work on this? Please?
Posted by: cuco3
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June 22, 2010 11:59 AM
I thought the best was the second one, with tentacles suddenly shooting out from just off-screen to snare lunch.
Posted by: Icaria
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June 22, 2010 12:43 PM
Oh for Pete's sake, whatever happened to a little discretion and decency. Let the poor things squirt ink in private, without it being smeared all over the media.
Posted by: mistereveready
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June 22, 2010 12:47 PM
soo... if i was caught eating squid on a stick, would i'd be excommunicated from this blog? :P.
Posted by: Cuttlefish, OM, CR
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June 22, 2010 1:21 PM
Once you go squid
You'll be glad that you did.
(or...
upgrade your wish
to cuttlefish.)
Posted by: Squiddhartha
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June 22, 2010 1:41 PM
mistereveready, I figure, since squid eat each other, they're fair game for me as well.
Posted by: Chgo_Liz
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June 22, 2010 2:24 PM
SQUEEE!
I spent - literally - hours watching Caribbean Reef squid last winter. Nothing else in the water was as fascinating to me, despite the abundance of sharks, rays, eels, etc.
There's just something about squid.
Posted by: Dewkeeper
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June 22, 2010 4:46 PM
@Mattir
One would hope we could DISABLE the damn things, or sex will become living hell =p
Posted by: Ruth
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June 22, 2010 7:33 PM
Squids are amazing. As a kid, I remember watching one once that had got into a crayfish (lobster) pot, to get a free meal eating the bait, haul itself up and out and to the side of the dingy and back into the water. THEN it did its black-cloud-of-doom act and ran (jetted?) off like hell.
If you haven't come across them, check out South Australian Giant Cuttlefish. The swiftness and complexity of colour changes are incredible - plus, they're just plain cool.
The Tree Octopus from Terry Pratchett's Nation is, however, the winner for as far as I'm concerned. (I have a 'Helene' sitting on my bookshelf as I type). How can you NOT like the idea of something that curls up under a chair because 'where there is one dried shrimp there may be more. Perhaps as many as fifteen.'?
Posted by: Andyo
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June 23, 2010 3:42 AM
Speaking of gastronomy, I was gonna link this, then I found out that PZ already blogged about it last month. (This youtube version is subtitled though.)
Krahe is amazing btw. Spanish-speaking Pharyngulites will get a huge kick out of his song El cromosoma.