cephalopods
pharyngula | November 2, 2007I'm off at this meeting and neglecting the site a bit, so when you've got little time and you want something cute to make everyone go "awww," what do you do? Find a picture of a cuttlefish, of course.
pharyngula | October 28, 2007This is pretty nifty: it's a nine-tentacled octopus. Count 'em!
If I may be so bold as to remind you all of the basics of cephalopod development and evolution, the primitive condition in cephalopods is to form ten arms; in the octopods, one pair is secondarily lost by some unidentified suppression in development. It's not too surprising that there would be some low frequency of re-expression of members of the fifth and normally missing pair — and the article mentions that the Akashi Seafood Council reports that they see this once in every 20 years or so.
They should keep an eye open for…
pharyngula | October 26, 2007I've been tagged with a HalloMeme, and am expected to describe an ocan-themed scary movie. At least this one is easy. I immediately thought of one movie that traumatized me deeply as a child. It was…
It Came From Beneath the Sea.
There's a wonderful photo essay on the movie if you haven't already seen it, but I'll summarize it briefly. It's a tragedy, and the tagline on the poster lies.
An innocent giant octopus (a curious species with only 6 arms) living deep in the ocean is attacked by humans throwing hydrogen bombs around. Not only is it disturbed, but it is irradiated so severely that…
pharyngula | October 26, 2007Adam Cuerden sent along this old political cartoon that doesn't really make much sense to me. Are we supposed to sympathise with William Gladstone? He's the guy with a big knife trying to murder the lovely creature who just wants to cling to his rock and be left alone. Tattooing his tentacles with the the words "rebellion," "lawlessness," "outrage," "sedition," etc. doesn't change the action we're witnessing.
(click for larger image)
pharyngula | October 26, 2007Octopus briareus, the Caribbean reef octopus
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | October 23, 2007
Some days, I just have to admit that Canada is cool. They've got no GW Bush, but they do have the Burgess shale…and now I learn that Newfoundland has giant squid. And they treat them respectfully!
I'll never tell another Newfie joke now.
pharyngula | October 23, 2007It's not a real proposal, but someone has come up with a provocative new genre, Squidpunk.
Fiction that unlike New Weird, Steampunk, or Slipstream, is at its core not only about squid, but about the symbolism of squid as color-changing, highly-mobile, alien-looking, intelligent ocean-goers. As a powerful ecosystem indicator, the squid is a potent symbol for environmental rejuvenation. Squidpunk is almost exclusively set at sea and must contain some reference to either cephalopods or to anything that thematically relates to squid, in terms of world iconography and tropes. Squidpunk is never…
pharyngula | October 12, 2007Watasenia scintellans
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | October 8, 2007
One last compendium, I think, unless I find unusually large quantities of Cephalopod Awareness links in my mailbox tomorrow.
A whole museum dedicated to octopus balls? The Japanese can be very strange, Tikistitch.
How to eat a cephalopod, if you're a mosasaur.
Nifty squid art.
What? A whole collection of squid posts at Progressive Gold, and I've been missing them?
What? Is that woman vomiting up a tentacle? Or is that supposed to be her tongue? I don't know whether I'm supposed to gag or be aroused.
Babies are always cute.
A Nude, Transexual, Pornographic LOLCthulhu. Enough said…
pharyngula | October 8, 2007
More cephalopods are being celebrated everywhere. Send me more!
Cephalopod eyes, and a question: Does your god like octopuses more than men? I don't know about you, but any gods I might have would be cold and cruel and regard us both with unheeding contempt.
A tentacled bra? For belly dancing? Paging Kristine…
Peter documents attacks by cephalopods on humans. There are three. That's pathetic, and somebody needs to put some spine in those invertebrates.
I had not realized that the Canadians were trying to usurp our day with Canadian Thanksgiving. Do they serve stuffed squid on this day…
pharyngula | October 8, 2007
We have another round of cephalopodic loveliness. Send me more!
Chris Clarke contemplates the word "sepia".
Why chiropractors shouldn't mess around with invertebrates.
Kevin submits the ubiquitous octopus vs. shark movie.
How can something so cute be angry? (Oh, man, I hear that one all the time.)
Poulperia. I think it's a variant on Santeria.
Roger Burnham sends us some movies:
href="http://blennylips.com/Critter%20Clips/Below/Critter/Mollusks/Caribbea
n%20Reef%20Squid/Caribbean%20Reef%20Squid%20001.wmv">Caribbean Reef Squid 001,
href="http://blennylips.com/Critter%20Clips/…
pharyngula | October 8, 2007
Here's the first volley of cephalopod recognition posts I've received. Do send me more, and I'll put them up later. Do me a favor and put "Cephalopod Awareness" in your subject line so I can sort them out more easily.
The blog that kicked this all off, Cephalopodcast, has a vintage octopus wrestling video. I remember my dating days, too. It's even from the Pacific Northwest, and that guy has a classic Seattle Scandihoovian accent.
From Greta Christina, Peter the Pirate Squid!
Somebody has found their way to the inner sanctum of the cephalopod lords, and returned with pictures. Yes, it'…
pharyngula | October 8, 2007
Remember, it's International Cephalopod Awareness Day! Send me links to your articles that express your appreciation of our 10- and 8-armed friends, and I'll periodically put them up right here on Pharyngula.
pharyngula | October 6, 2007
Oh, no! I just found out that Monday, the 8th of October, the tenth month, will be International Cephalopod Awareness Day, as also discussed on TONMO. I have so little time to prepare! Everyone else get kraken, too, and remember to send me links to your cephalopodic celebrations in cyberspace on Monday.
pharyngula | September 28, 2007Helicocranchia sp.
Figure from The Deep(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Claire Nouvian.
pharyngula | September 22, 2007Tantalizing news: somewhere out there in the wide, wide world is a video of a pilot whale eating a large squid.
"We looked hard and saw a tentacle of a squid hanging from its mouth and there were other pieces of squid stuck to the whale's body. It made a number of brusque movements on its side in the water to free the tentacle to eat it — and there we were filming and photographing it all."
If you follow TONMO you already know it's probably not a giant squid, as the article breathlessly reports, but it's still going to be interesting because whales that feed on squid do have a problem: the…
pharyngula | September 21, 2007The Burke Museum is having some opening day festivities for their new exhibit, In Search of Giant Squid. They're having a public squid dissection, cephalopod poetry and art (not by, I don't think, but about) and various other entertaining and educational opportunities.
True Pharyngula phans in the Seattle area will be there. I wish I could be.