cephalopods
pharyngula | September 13, 2010Here's a blog post on the French naturalist Jean Painlevé which I can't read, because it's in French, of all things, but I can look at the pictures…and hey, those Frenchmen do like their innuendos and salacious slipperiness.
I think that may be the raciest video I've ever posted here…whew.
pharyngula | September 10, 2010Mark (Monty) Montague was an occasional commenter here, and a major contributor at TONMO with a passion for cephalopods. I'm sorry to report that he died in in a diving accident this summer. There will be a memorial service on 2 October at Caltech.
Sepioteuthis sepioidea
pharyngula | August 30, 2010Quick, accelerate the campaign of world conquest before anyone else catches on.
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At least Colbert confesses to having an extensive collection of squid photographs. We could bond over that; perhaps we should bring him over to our side…?
pharyngula | August 11, 2010No, everyone who is sending me this photo, that is not a picture of my home life.
I'll have you know that the arrangement my wife and I have is that I do the cooking, she does the dishes.
However, I will concede that this picture might count as TrophyWife™ porn.
pharyngula | August 7, 2010Look at this: a colossal squid washed up on a beach near Wellington, and all the little kiwis came out to play.
I'm jealous. This never happens in Morris, Minnesota.
pharyngula | August 6, 2010Benthoctopus sp.
This was photographed on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. Human beings are persona non grata in that neighborhood anymore, I suspect.
Actually, is there anywhere in the ocean we'd be liked? Except as a snack?
(via Spiegel)
pharyngula | August 5, 2010There really were savage battles between man and giant squid in the 19th century. They all come off as a little bit one sided, though: some poor sick squid floundering on the surface is encountered by a passing ship, harpoons and gaff hooks are thrown, and if the dying beast manages to fling a tentacle across the deck, the brutes hack it off with axes.
pharyngula | July 31, 2010We're about to leave lovely Vancouver to return to Kent, Washington, so must leave you with something awful to chew on for a while. This is is a beautiful example of why creationists can be so stupid: spelling and grammar errors throughout, misrepresentations of the actual science, and non-stop idiocy. For instance, it is not true that squid, octopus, and cuttlefish have all been found in the Cambrian; the coleoids diverged from a common ancestor in the late Cambrian or early Ordovician. This does not mean that modern coleoids were present in the Cambrian. We've got a pretty good idea of what…
pharyngula | July 29, 2010Earlier this summer, I mentioned the Oregon Octocam, which featured an octopus named Deriq.
Deriq has died. It's a sad fact that most cephalopods are very short lived.
"The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you have burned so very, very brightly, Deriq."
pharyngula | July 9, 2010I was so excited about this lead.
A famous Newfoundland sea monster will soon occupy a space normally reserved for Canada's Queen.
I was even more excited when I saw a picture of the Newfie beast:
That'll teach that dingleberry Charles — bypassed by a giant squid, soon to be ruler of all Britannia.
It was a major letdown to discover the details.
Glover's Harbour's giant roadside squid statue has been chosen to appear on a new Canadian stamp.
A fellow can still dream, though. Someone needs to drop a hint to Queen Elizabeth that a giant aquatic mollusc would do a better job on the throne…
pharyngula | July 8, 2010I know you all mean well, but 30-40 emails a day just about the German octopus 'predicting' World Cup matches is wearing me out. I have to explain a few things.
Cephalopods are not psychic. Nothing is.
If this were real, it would be Paul the Precognitive Octopus. It's telling the future, not reading minds.
Cephalopods cannot see into the future. Nothing can.
As this game is set up, there's a simple 50% chance in any trial that the octopus will guess correctly. It has guessed correctly 6 times; there's a 1 in 64 chance you could get the same result flipping a quarter.
Cephalopods are smart and…