cephalopods
pharyngula | September 28, 2008This photo won an honorable mention in the Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. They were robbed! Grand prize or they'll rip the judges' faces off!
Squidsuckers: The Little Monsters That Feed the Beast
Credit: Jessica D. Schiffman and Caroline L. Schauer, Drexel University
Crunch. The satisfying sound of a crushed cockroach comes from the destruction of its chitin-based exoskeleton. The white, fanglike circles in this electron micrograph of squid suckers are also chitin, but they are not so easily crushed. Their scant 400-micrometer diameter belies the true power of the suckers. A…
pharyngula | September 26, 2008Octopus mimus
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | September 26, 2008Octopus kagoshimensis
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | September 26, 2008Octopus kagoshimensis
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | September 5, 2008Argonauta hians, hitchhiking
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | August 29, 2008Sepioteuthis lessoniana
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | August 28, 2008Once upon a time, I made some unfortunate remarks about knitting, and I felt like I'd prodded Madame Defarge, which is never a good idea.
But really, I love you guys, and here's a whole page of cephalopod craft patterns to show it.
pharyngula | August 22, 2008Steven Pirie-Shepherd discovered the next generation of chemistry professors at the aquarium in Santa Barbara. I am impressed, and will more eagerly join the next search for new chemistry faculty at my university — I have a recommendation in mind.
Together with my prior observation, we clearly need to expand our saltwater generation facilities.
pharyngula | August 22, 2008There was something familiar about this article on the colossal squid. It seems that when they're young and small, they're long, lean, and equipped with vicious hooks on their arms, but as they get older and larger, they get shorter, wider, and become slow-moving "giant gelatinous blobs".
So…squid get tenure, too?
pharyngula | August 22, 2008Claire O'Quin sent me this photo with a little story.
While taking a fish ecology and morphology class out at University of Washington's Friday Harbor Labs, we came across this little Stubby squid, Rossia pacifica, while collecting one day. He soon became our mascot during the 5 week class. I know the picture isn't that super, but he was a cool little guy and I thought you might like him too.
How can you resist a sweet little story like that?
pharyngula | August 15, 2008Loliolus japonica
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pzminion | August 14, 2008A ne pas manquer: Cephalopods strike back!
My favorite part is when they 'ink' the antagonist.
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Zut alors! I forgot to identify myself as Danieau
pharyngula | August 8, 2008Octopus sp. kagoshimensis
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | August 1, 2008Watch and find out next week, as the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa prepares to move the Colossal Squid live, on webcam. It's going from its formalin soak to a new display tank. Along the way they'll sew up a rip in the mantle, remove some eggs and check how it has preserved.
The live webcast starts at 9am NZ time on Wednesday 6 August, USA time Tuesday, 5 August, 2pm PDT, 5pm EDT and UK time Tuesday, 5 August, 10pm.
pharyngula | August 1, 2008Hey, isn't this the time of year you should be traveling to exotic places, diving and snorkeling in tropical oceans, and of course, sending your underwater photos to me to inspire acute envy? That's what Philip Qua did, and here are some cephalopods spotted in the Caribbean reefs off Cozumel.
pharyngula | July 25, 2008Sepia smithi
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | July 19, 2008Teratology is so interesting — it gives us hints about the mechanisms driving developmental processes. In some cases, when you just have a few isolated instances, it can be frustrating, because there isn't enough information to go much beyond speculation. Here's one of those tantalizing cases: an octopus with branching tentacles.
Now that is fascinating. Look at limb formation as an abstract developmental problem in which you first have to initiate a protrusion from a specific place on the body wall; the protrusion has to elongate to a specific length; and it has to be patterned along its…
pharyngula | July 18, 2008This is a long streaming video, so you might want to save it for something to watch over lunch. Mark Norman takes a giant squid apart at the Melbourne Museum.