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Octopus marginatus, in a coconut shell
And here it is, taking a walk while holding its shell with a few arms (good thing it has spares).
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
Octopus briareus, the Caribbean reef octopus
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
Octopus alpheus
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
Octopus cyanea
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
Oh. What a sweet little chappy. I wish I was his mum.
Veiny
Vidi
hey pz,
check out this funky video of one of these little suckers cutting up the dance floor.
(oops forgot the link)
http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/misc/hp_jumps/octopus/marg.html
How do we know he's a he? My first thought (for reasons I can't explain) was, Wow, she's beautiful! I tend to assume both cephalopods and spiders are always female. Depending on the species of spider I have a pretty good chance of being right, but with the cephalopods, well, it's 50-50, right?
Looks like a Platypus,dont he......
"one of the most remarkable discoveries of recent decades is that genomes are not static, fixed entities that evolve as one; instead, they are highly dynamic. From one generation to the next, stretches of DNA may appear or disappear, or move from one location to another. From time to time, entire new genes appear and become established, thus expanding the organisms' genetic repertoire.
But where do new genes come from?
http://tinyurl.com/6mkzx6
Looks delicious. Saute with butter, garlic and parsley. Serve with a slice of lemon and sides of potatoes and steamed vegetables.
Veiny.
Vidi.
Vici! (Oh, come on, someone had to.)
Pretty colors.
Genes are sometimes duplicated by copying errors or mitosis or meiosis mistakes, and then one of the copies is free to mutate.
In very rare cases, junk DNA mutates into a gene. This is where the gene for the antifreeze protein of icefish comes from: basically, a start codon and a stop codon appeared in the middle of nowhere by random mutation.
In other words, ultimately, nothing is ever really new. :-)
Vichy.
Back to the water!
It looks kinda like a hippo facing to the left with its mouth wide open.
I can't unsee it.
Except that the pronunciation of "v" in Latin as a voiced labiodental fricative is a mediæval innovation -- uncool as it sounds, it would have been pronounced by the Romans, including Cæsar, of course, much more like "wehny weedy weeky".
Emmet is technically correct. My first Latin teacher hammered this into us and we had to pronounce the 'v' as a 'w.' She was kinda old-school like that.
The Latin pronunciation that always cracked me up -- 'cuz I'm lame like that -- was "civi". It always seemed so silly.
Thanks for the Friday Ceph, PZ! He's a beauty.
Not medieval -- the emperor Valentinianus was already transcribed by the Greeks with beta rather than with omikron ypsilon, so the shift must have happened sometime between him and Valerius (Oualerios). But of course Caesar lived much earlier than both.
Just a fun fact: Octopus marginatus is now Amphioctopus marginatus. Ever shifting taxonomy is so much fun.
What would cause a cephalopod to break out with such a bright smile?
Ah! That explains "Fwee Bwian!!" Sort of.
Beautiful!
Did you guys watch the videos deviljelly linked to? Did you?!
Neat video!
What's with the webbing? It seems like it would inhibit mobility somewhat (that opinion is based on nothing concrete). Is it a "retractable" feature to make the little cutie-pie look bigger when threatened?
I think this is my favorite Friday cephalopod.
I wrote...
I just read the platypus genome paper. It mentions that the casein genes (for a group of milk proteins) derive from duplicates of genes for an enamel protein. That's right, milk is mutated tooth enamel. :-)
As I wrote: ultimately, nothing is ever really new.
Absolutely gorgeous.
"wehny weedy weeky"
Cowwect, my fwiend, Biggus Dickus.
Pretty pretty cPod.
Beautiful animal.
Just curious. Given the tradition, are you a Detroit Redwings fan Mr. Myers?
Come on now PZ, those are not actually veins as in part of the circulatory system, are they?
There's a second link on this page to a video of the same kind of octopus pretending to be an algae whilst walking along on two legs.
It's very Dr. Seuss.
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/03/24_octopus.shtml
Those running Octopuses are awesome. I would never have expected that.
It looks like a very happy red hippo with all but its head buried in the seafloor.
Agreed James. That's what I thought it was at first, before I took a good look at it. :D