Friday Cephalopod: planktonic Octopus paralarva

i-c6288929ddadcd6364cc50c5208462b0-octopus_paralarva.jpg
Octopus sp.

Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.

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Beautiful photo!

Magnificent!

By Rockingham (not verified) on 03 Mar 2006 #permalink

Wow. Is that just a natural light picture, or is it some kind of false-color / stained / multi-spectral image?

That is purdy. Size matters to me, so ... how big is it?

By Manson's Cellmate (not verified) on 03 Mar 2006 #permalink

I realize that this may get me banned from the site, but ...

I prefer octopuses to squid. They're prettier and they're smarter.

That's right, I said it.

By Mnemosyne (not verified) on 03 Mar 2006 #permalink

that's what I call a bauplan.

I prefer octopuses to squid. They're prettier and they're smarter.

Blasphemer! Cuttlefish are the best cephalopods. Have you ever see films of their color/pattern changing abilities? They're like living cathode ray tubes.

By Troy Britain (not verified) on 03 Mar 2006 #permalink

How about a little more critter info? How big, how and where the picture was taken, etc.

By D Tisdale (not verified) on 03 Mar 2006 #permalink

Yeah, Mnemosyne, how do you feel about sea cuttles?

I've been lectured sooooo many times that "starfish are not fish; you should call them sea stars," that I figure, we'd better apply the same rule to everything that's not a fish.

Sea cuttles, or, obviously, sea cuddles. Jellyfish are now sea jellies (which takes far less time to type or say than "gelatinous zooplankton"). Devilfish are sea devils (if they're octopuses), unless they're manta rays (becuase cartilaginous fish, apparently, count as fish -- cladistics shmadistics). Blackfish are now sea blacks, instead of pilot whales.

What am I missing? Help me out, people.
*Fun new party game!*

OTOH, despite being fish, catfish are not cats. Dogfish are not dogs. Frogfish are not frogs. Sea lilies are not plants.
And neither midshipman nor mudskippers are officers aboard ships.

I appreciate any suggestions for solving the terrible problem of sketchpad common names.

Steff Z: Does this mean that an "elfish" is now a sea el? And an "oafish" is a sea oa? If I post more would I be a sea sel? Or if I quit too soon am a bit sea standof? Or just a sea cold?

Gracious, it's a living Chihuly.

So many cute things which I can't have and pet. I do still have some adorable frogs though - and one of those regularly comes over to the side of the pond nearer to me and lets me stroke him. The neighbours decided to call that one "Dopey". In survival terms it's the equivalent of an octopus or squid deliberately greeting boats, when one of those might turn out to have dangerous fishermen with sharp hooks attached.

Which raises the question of what that particular octopus did to get itself photographed - and whether there were any unfortunate consequences for itself...

Oh, oh! Party Games!
I love those.

How about sea lion. According to wikipedia it's a relative to bears, so it may be more apropriate to call it a Sea Bear.

And since starfish, or sea stars as suggested, aren't exactly the shape of actual stars (stars are round balls of burning gas, the closest to us is called Sol) they should more aprotrietly be called sea pentagrams. I realise I'm being difficult since the star shape in a symbol is were similar to the starfish' shape. But being difficult is part of the fun of these games.

In my native tounge Norwegian sea lion is directly translated to sjøløve, which is not to be mistaken for a strandløve, a word that translates to Beach Lion, which is nothing of a marine animal other than the fact that it is a description of a jock or a stud flaunting is assets at the beach.