Escape artist

Zoologist Norbert Smith writes:

While attending college, I built a 100 gallon refrigerated salt water aquarium and kept a small octopus, crabs, starfish and other tide pool critters...not an easy task for one living in western Oklahoma. The tank was divided by a vertical glass partition and on several occasions the octopus would get to the other side and devour the crabs. Lacking a skeleton, it squeezed through the narrow 1-2 millimeter space alongside the partition!

But, what about his BRAINS man! Are they so small that they fit through the hole, or are they squisy and re-arrangeable too?

I mean geeze, squishy brains - would he experience problems with cognition?

Yep, once he gets his beak through, he knows he's home free. Cadallus, their brains aren't all that big.

PZed, I for one am really happy we have bones:
1. They're really pretty; the shapes of the human femur, pelvis and skull are really pleasing forms.
2. They make our images easier to reproduce naturalistically. I have the hardest time drawing octopodes because of their lack of rigid structure.

Cool video. Does anyone know how big octopus brains are?

neat. I'm guessing that the head (or whatever that part is) is usually just filled with water, for the octopus to be able to shrink it that dramatically.

I know octopuses have a high EQ. I also know people have sometimes claimed they have the highest EQ outside of humans, but that's nonsense. But for an invertebrate it's very high.

Hey, you've got to watch the next video in that line up. It shows an octo eating a shark... Yikes!

Bobryuu said: I have the hardest time drawing octopodes because of their lack of rigid structure.

My experience drawing invertebrates is the opposite. For me, boneless is easier. But it no longer matters, I've got so much nerve damage I can barely scrawl my signature on a check let alone draw sea creatures.

Of course... how else can Cephalo Claus get down our chimneys to deliver Cephalopodmas gifts? As if any human (especially a fat, jolly one) could fit into those narrow excuses for chimneys we have these days to vent our furnaces. Plus, eight arms are so much quicker than two for stuffing the stockings.

EQ - Emotional Quotient? So octopodes are good at empathy?

Bones do make it hard for me to be able to pull my body through a coat hanger like I could in younger days, but since I'm not buoyant enough to ambulate through the air, then I kinda like them for keeping me rigid and upright and off the dirty ground.

Bones are such a nuisance, aren't they?
I dunno, I have seen cats squeeze through some amazingly tight spaces. Most recently was my 15 pound cat getting under the front seat of the car. With cats too I suppose the brain size wouldn't make much of a difference in getting through a small space.

I've seen my dog (miniature schnauzer, slightly larger than average) slither under a garage door that was no more than six inches off the ground, and dogs aren't even known for being able to do that. All the more impressive when you watch a species that has a talent for that sort of thing...

I wonder if anyone's ever presented the octopus as an argument against intelligent design -- after all, what intelligent designer would give an animal a highly developed brain without the lifespan to take full advantage of it?

That octopus eating the shark was pretty amazing. It reminded me of all those fakey undersea movies where the Kraken got into it with the sperm whale...... only this time I guess you'd say the good guy won.

Bobryuu, 1. They're really pretty; the shapes of the human femur, pelvis and skull are really pleasing forms.

Evolution made this true for you; if you'd evolved from molluscs instead of apes, you'd find something else erotic - suckers, tentacles, ink clouds, beaks.

Dunno what this says for PZ?

noes!!! Does this mean I'll never be able to remake Boxing Helena with octopussies?

Mice and hamsters are escape artists too.

In my childhood one of my Syrian hamsters were happily exploring the house one evening when the family returned from a trip. That was a particularly limber one who liked to cling under the cage top, and eventually had worked a bad weld loose in the lid. Apparently he could push his body through a slot half his usual height while hanging upside down.

Mice and hamsters are escape artists too.

In my childhood one of my Syrian hamsters were happily exploring the house one evening when the family returned from a trip. That was a particularly limber one who liked to cling under the cage top, and eventually had worked a bad weld loose in the lid. Apparently he could push his body through a slot half his usual height while hanging upside down.