cephalopods
pharyngula | June 12, 2009Sepia pharaonis
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
edyong | June 2, 2009In the darkness of the deep ocean, some animals create their own light. Among these is the Hawaiian bobtail squid Euprymna scolopes, which forms a partnership with the luminous bacterium Vibrio fischeri. The squid houses colonies of these bacteria in special light organs, and it can control the brightness and direction of their illuminations. But these organs do much more than produce light - they detect it too.
Deyan Tong from the University of Wisconsin has discovered that the organs generate nervous signals when they sense light and they're loaded with proteins responsible for detecting…
pharyngula | May 29, 2009Sepia bandensis
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | May 22, 2009Hapalochlaena maculosa
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | May 16, 2009Warren Ellis set his readers to a task: to draw an old pulp comic book character, the Octopus. The Octopus had a stunning description.
One of the more outré of the pulp characters-and given the genre, that's quite saying something, believe me-the Octopus was actually the villain of the piece in his single issue, The Octopus v1 #4, 1939, written by...well, it's not exactly clear. It might be Norvel Page, or it might be Ejler and Edith Jacobsen. A rather over-the-top mad scientist, the Octopus worked from a big city hospital and plotted world conquest. His appearance might explain his desire…
pharyngula | May 15, 2009Ommastrephes bartramii
Via tolweb:
Ommastrephid squids are among the strongest swimmers in the Cephalopoda. Some are commonly known as "flying squid" due to their ability to glide over the ocean surface…
pharyngula | May 8, 2009Hapalochlaena fasciata
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | May 5, 2009I mean, really — who gets all worked up over cephalopods? It's incomprehensible.
pharyngula | April 30, 2009Octopus kaurna(That's one female at the center of a mass of males)
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | April 30, 2009My heart skipped a beat, I pressed a knuckle to my mouth, my eyelashes fluttered wildly as I tried to hold back my tears as I read this cutting review:
Mr Geoffrey Deene of Fashion Wire Daily, I still think you'd look sodding STUPID if you wore this anywhere:
NOOOOOOoooooooOOOOoooo!!! But I already ordered it for my Spring wardrobe! Whatever shall I dooooooo?
pharyngula | April 26, 2009This movie of mating octopuses is beautiful…but the narrator speaks in this husky French voice that makes it sound horribly lewd, like a dirty old man. Even better!
pharyngula | April 24, 2009Octopus kaurna
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | April 21, 2009All right, I like cephalopods. I admit it. So why do I find this article about hunting octopus in the Mediterranean so entertaining? I mean, the guy is diving down, stabbing the octopus between the eyes with a pointy stick, and then…
Next step: the octopus must be tenderized by slamming it against a large rock at least a hundred times or more. When its natural color changes to white, I rinse it repeatedly in sea water and drag it back and forth over a rough rock surface with a rhythmic motion. A white foam is released, and this movement must continue until all the foam disappears. When the…
pharyngula | April 17, 2009Octopus vulgaris
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | April 14, 2009Those squishy softies on the non-science side of campus…they can do anything, apparently. Holbo is playing with the creation of an illustrated children's book for adults, called Squid & Owl. Obviously, it's got owls and squid in it, and compares them frequently, with an interesting graphic style.
I had a moment's worry when I saw this page, though.
I thought the answer was obvious — developmental and molecular biology — and was worried that he was about to horn into my turf, but fortunately he takes another tack altogether.
pharyngula | April 13, 2009That is the kind of important question we ponder all the time, and in a demonstration of the superiority of empirical data over philosophizing, here is a video to show the answer.
pharyngula | April 10, 2009I just got my very own I [squid] NY shirt, which prompts a few questions. When are we going to get a squid html entity, like ♥? I'm sure it would be used heavily. How would New Yorkers interpret this shirt, anyway (I know, New Yorkers see enough weirdness that they don't care)?
I'm going to be in NY briefly on the first of May. If I wear this shirt, will somebody mug me and steal it from me?