Friday Cephalopod: Say hello to my little friend

i-944fe6d73583c77c1108471e939d7b1b-enteroctopus_dofleini.jpeg
Enteroctopus dofleini

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

More like this

We should all have friends like that. Yay, Friday! (even though I'm at home sick today)

I'm so jealous! I want to go diving with Cthulhu!

The 'little friend' is the one top-left. the big red one is the feind ;-)

So, is that what it'd look like if I weren't snipped?

Goddamn Catholic parents!

By Brownian, OM (not verified) on 11 Dec 2009 #permalink

Fell out of a tree?

By Sven DiMilo (not verified) on 11 Dec 2009 #permalink

Nah, it's still in there. Don't you see the foliage?

The diveress is photoshopped in.

(It's part of the conspiracy, you see.)

Humboldt State University's marine lab has a wall of fish tanks in the main hall and one of them usually contains one of these beasties. Local fishermen or people connected to the lab find small juveniles from time to time and take them to the lab. When an individual outgrows the public tank, it's released back into the local bay and a new one, when available takes its place.

It's pretty wild when one is "shedding." The octopus writhes and wriggles and rubs it's tentacles together until the top layer of skin in the suction cups sloughs off. The shed skin looks a bit like weird little jellyfish floating around in the water.

By SebastesMan (not verified) on 11 Dec 2009 #permalink

Wow - I've never seen such a huge octopus - except in very bad movies.

By MadScientist (not verified) on 11 Dec 2009 #permalink

Diving Puget Sound? Probably not, as it looks like a wet suit (not a dry suit). Really cool to dive with those curious buggers in any case.

By sasqwatch (not verified) on 11 Dec 2009 #permalink

I would like to humbly submit members of the order Sepiida for the next friday cephalopod

That is all

By Rob Powell (not verified) on 11 Dec 2009 #permalink