Friday Cephalopod: Face full of suckers

i-6c69060368db2a2a52a0c0b02a8bce7d-argonauta_nodosa.jpg
Argonauta nodosa

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

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Wow, that's so awe inspiring I could almost pray to it!

Though I think I noticed a few defective cromatophores maybe you should send it back to the manufacturer, er designer...

By Fernando Magyar (not verified) on 20 Oct 2006 #permalink

I suppose I can see an eye, but I do not understand the rest of this... thing. Was it submitted to some kind of... compression ?

Nat, the arms are folded back over the shell-like egg case. You can glimpse part of the white wall of the case behind the eye.

"I do not understand the rest of this... thing."

Seems you're not alone... e.g., it really is an octopus, but the egg case looks a lot like a nautilus shell. More about it at The Cephalopod Page:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/tcp/Argo.html

By David Harmon (not verified) on 20 Oct 2006 #permalink

I misread the caption as "argonauta medusa" the first time.