Friday Cephalopod: The stripes look fabulous on you, darling

It looks like it's posing to have a lure made out of it.

It looks like it's posing to have a lure made out of it.

I await the fossil picture of this 200 million years ago.

gosh that's a beautiful cephalopod

That should be the model for all cephalopods.

Boo, hiss - want movement

This is a very interesting video on the Guardian.co.uk:
The creationism controversy in the classroom
Find it here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/video/2008/nov/07/creationism-evolu…

Dahling!

OT but I would hope that Prof. Myers will comment in his usual trenchant manner about the rumor that Robert F. Kennedy may get a high post in the incoming Obama administration; administrator of the EPA has been prominently mentioned. As Steven Novella and ORAC have pointed out in posts today and yesterday, given the fact that Mr. Kennedy is a total whackjob scientifically speaking, as evidenced by his anti-vaccine attitude, this would send the wrong message to the scientific community. This crackpot shouldn't be allowed withing 10 miles of any government agency with responsibilities for any scientific issue.

Off the coast of Australia, and not the Bahamas,
Swims a squid in a pair of striped pajamas.
This may seem odd to folks like you
But he thinks your shirt looks funny, too.

They say vertical stripes makes you look much slimmer. I never realized its an evolutionary thing as well. You look slimmer. Predators think you don't have enough meat to be worth chasing. You survive to make little vertical striped babies.

Its all just a little too neat. Nah, it musta been a (fashion?) designer's handiwork.

Its funny, ones first reaction is to say, "Oooooo, Ahhhhhh... Pretty colours!" But if you look just a little deeper, one can realize that the 'faaaabulous stripes you see, are a product of the way in which light interacts with water, making a striped body useful for survival.

Having knowledge to THAT effect, makes this little creature all the more pleasing to the eye.

Thanks for sharing PZ

AB> If you look closely, they're horizontal on the organism, not vertical... a form of camouflage perhaps? breaking up the image?

It looks upside-down to me.

Quite the hood ornament, as well.

Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7

There's a lot of blue there. Did the little fellow vote for Obama?

It's adorable. Who's a little Sepioteuthis australis? Are you a little Sepioteuthis australis? Yes, you are, ooza wooza wooza...

snacking on little, glowing shrimp
hovering killer, bioluminous blimp
examines you closely, seems to shrink
then dissapears, in a cloud of ink

Aaaaahhhh...

A thread where everyone's funny and nobody's arguing!

Due to the cuteness, or the soothing blue and black?

And what evolutionary advantage does cuteness give to a slimy sea critter?

Hmmm, australis, blue.

So, just how deadly is this guy?

There is another wonderful photo of the squid at http://www.scuba-equipment-usa.com/marine/NOV04/Southern_Calamari_Squid…

The site describes the squid:

The Southern Calamari Squid (Sepioteuthis australis) is a temperate water species that can be found around the southern coastline of Australia and in the northern waters of New Zealand. It can be found around inshore coastal waters and frequently forms small schools of up to a dozen individuals and they can be found over seagrass meadows and reefs. They are generally seen by divers at night time as this is when they are more active and are attracted to divers diving lights. They feed on fish and crustacean species and are a fast voracious feeder. It lays its eggs on the seafloor or attached to sponges in fleshy white strings of 2-6 eggs per string.

Tim Gunn would approve of this lovely ensemble.