cephalopods
pharyngula | September 21, 2007Deep sea squid, unidentified species
Figure from The Deep(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Claire Nouvian.
pharyngula | September 15, 2007People, don't do this to me. I've got all this work I've got to get done so that I'm free to go on a date this evening, and you keep sending me these distractions. Like, for instance, this link to a collection of Marine Invertebrate Video and Film Stock Footage. Cephalopods and nudibranchs and crustaceans and salps, all categorized (there's even an invertebrate mating category! With 421 clips! It's free porn!) and with thousands of high resolution videos. The previews are all free, but you can also license HD video of these beautiful action shots.
I will be disciplined, though. I'm closing…
pharyngula | September 14, 2007Sepioteuthis sepioidea
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | September 9, 2007Shelley had her weird cake article, but it failed to include this bizarre masterpiece.
I can't quite imagine why a cephalopod would want to do that, when there are so many attractive molluscs in the sea.
pharyngula | September 8, 2007I believe I've shown this video here before, but it's pretty, so look at it again.
However, Our Descent into Madness asks whether this is "magical or gross". You all know the correct answer.
Neither!
It's beautiful and entirely, gloriously, perfectly NATURAL.
pharyngula | September 7, 2007Glowing sucker octopus
Figure from The Deep(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Claire Nouvian.
pharyngula | September 5, 2007This is a photo of a Mr Potatohead stuffed with fish, and an octopus gnawing the tasty treat out of its head.
I just want to know who has been leaking our training and conditioning procedures from the submarine labs. Do we have a mole in the organization?
pharyngula | August 31, 2007This is a kind of cephalart quickie, two images that are perfect for Pharyngula. If I had rooms here I'd hang them in ornate frames surrounded by expensive lighting.
Here is the patron saint of Pharyngula, St Architeuthis, by Skot Olsen.
This one is so beautiful it brings a tear to me eye; the only way it could be improved is if it were painted on black velvet. Here's a test: I can't name all the people seated at da Vinci's Last Supper, but I can name every one in this picture. Can you?
pharyngula | August 26, 2007 Doesn't this just ruin your day? A cephalopod is featured on Cute Overload. The comments will give you hyperglycemia.
pharyngula | August 24, 2007Stauroteuthis syrtensis
Figure from The Deep(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Claire Nouvian.
pharyngula | August 21, 2007
Really, Tikistitch finds the weirdest stuff, but I still think I want one. Even if it is rather impractical — in this part of the world, we seem to go from frolicking naked in the heat to requiring multiple layers of down and fabric to survive, so these items for in-between temperatures don't see a lot of use.
pharyngula | August 21, 2007
I've been informed by Greta Christina that I've been beaten to the punch: the best title ever is already taken.
Happiness Is a Squishy Cephalopod(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll).
It's so true, and I'm going to have to pick up a copy of that one.
pharyngula | August 17, 2007Wonderpus is a spectacular cephalopod that has appeared a few times on the Friday Cephalopod. How can you forget an octopus with this kind of psychedelic color?
Wunderpus photogenicus
Now a reader has sent me a link to the formal taxonomic description of Wunderpus photogenicus, and we can get more details on this beautiful animal.
A taxonomic paper is more than a couple of gosh-wow pictures and the announcement of a spiffy name — it's a fairly detailed description of as much as is known about the species, with special attention paid to the technical features that distinguish this species from…
pharyngula | August 17, 2007(click for larger image)Vampyroteuthis infernalis
Figure from The Deep(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Claire Nouvian.
from Kim Reisenbichler © MBARI 1995
pharyngula | August 15, 2007OK, nice reference to both Darwin and cephalopods, but doesn't it bother anyone that the viscosity of the medium would make baseball impossible to play, and that wooden bats would cause a serious buoyancy problem for the animals?
(Via Zeno, who has frightened the creationists out of his state)
pharyngula | August 11, 2007Graphic-intensive collection of pretty pictures below the fold: beware.
Cephalopod poetry also counts as art.
Octopus
By Algernon Charles Sin-Burn
Strange beauty, eight-limbed and eight-handed,
Whence camest to dazzle our eyes?
With thy bosom bespangled and banded
With the hues of the seas and the skies;
Is thy home European or Asian,
O mystical monster marine?
Part molluscous and partly crustacean,
Betwixt and between.
Wast thou born to the sound of sea trumpets?
Hast thou eaten and drunk to excess
Of the sponges -- thy muffins and crumpets,
Of the seaweed…
pharyngula | August 10, 2007Histioteuthis heteropsis
Figure from The Deep(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Claire Nouvian.
pharyngula | August 5, 2007I've got to get back to my meeting, but Cosma just had to distract me with these classic video clips on dissecting the squid giant axon, including movies of one of my personal heroes, JZ Young (pronounced, as everyone knows, as jay-zed), in action. It's beautiful stuff.