cephalopods
pharyngula | February 2, 2007May your weekend be as fun as theirs.
Loliginid squid mating
Well, more fun, actually…these squid have a frenzied spawning, and then die. Don't go quite that far.
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | January 26, 2007Sepioteuthis sepioidea
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | January 25, 2007People are always asking me this question:
I swear, though, that I never, ever give them this answer…
pharyngula | January 22, 2007Hot tip for cephalopod fans: the February 2007 issue of Natural History magazine includes a very good article on octopus intelligence and personality.
Enteroctopus dofleini and Lego™
Mather JA (2007) Eight arms, with attitude. Natural History 116(1):30-36.
pharyngula | January 19, 2007
Bioephemera not only shows off a chandelier to die for (if I had one installed, my wife would make sure I died for it), but has announced that she needs a cephalopodmania category. It's infectious.
Another blogger with a reputation for Friday Squid blogging is Bruce Schneier. Rumor has it that he will be here at ConFusion, and the organizers are going to try and arrange an ad hoc session with the two of us, on squid.
pharyngula | January 19, 2007I forgot to set up a Friday Cephalopod post before I left, and I don't have my scanner with me! Don't panic. Deep breaths. We can cope with this, by being as flexible as a cephalopod.
Here's what I've done. I've reposted an article on Gonatus onyx, which has lovely photos of a squid and its babies. If you saw that beautiful movie of a squid releasing larvae as it was suspended in the deep, you'll recognize it—this is one of those resonantly moving behaviors of certain species of squid: they produced huge numbers of eggs, and then just hover, completely alone and isolated in a deep layer of…
pharyngula | January 19, 2007
Oh, sure…one moment it's all long throbbing organs pumping slickly in and out of orifices, and then the next thing you know, you've got a whole faceful of babies and little larvae giving you that evil demonic look. This is what happens after the squid orgies.
While most squid seem to lay their eggs in masses on the sea floor, Gonatus onyx is a deep sea squid that hangs on to its clutch of several thousand eggs, swimming along with them dangling in filmy sheets, occasionally pumping its tentacles to aerate them. The movies filmed from a submersible are spectacular (some are available here).…
pharyngula | January 19, 2007Watch the octopus crawl through a maze of plexiglas tubes—it makes a fellow wish he could get rid of his bones. Hydraulic skeletons rule!
pharyngula | January 14, 2007The beginning will seem a little cryptic, and you'll wonder what those little glimmering points of light in the deep might be, but be patient—all will become clear.
(hat tip to the Science Pundit)
pharyngula | January 13, 2007The heathen at IIDB are talking about squid—it's infectious, I tell you, and the godless seem especially susceptible—and in particular about this interesting paper on squid fisheries. Squid are on the rise, and are impressively numerous.
We can get an idea of the abundance of squid in the world's ocean by considering the consumption of cephalopods (mainly squid) from just one cephalopod predator the sperm whale. Sperm whales alone are estimated to consume in excess of 100 million tonnes of cephalopods a year. This is equivalent to the total world fishery catch and probably exceeds half the…
pharyngula | January 12, 2007I really don't know whether to believe this story or not. It's a diary of a sailing trip that reports an encounter with a fellow sailor who had experienced serious difficulties.
We reported last time that Shigeo's trip from the Galapagos to the Marquesas had been terrible -- after about 1000 miles his autopilot had failed, something had gone wrong with his steering, his engine water intake had clogged temporarily, blowing his impeller, the intake for one of his heads had clogged, and, most important of all, something had slowed his speed down to 2 knots, even with full sails, a lot of wind,…
pharyngula | January 12, 2007Grrlscientist asked me for a blue cephalopod the other day, and what do we all think of when blue cephalopods come up? Blue ringed octopuses, of course. So lovely, and so deadly.
Hapalochlaena
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | January 11, 2007This will blow you away. Watch the video and spot the octopus—it's like magic.
(via Skeptic News)
pharyngula | December 30, 2006I don't think I showed this video in the flurry of Architeuthis posts a while back, but if so, it's worth seeing again.
It is rather sad how limp and exhausted the poor animal looks as they drag it in.
pharyngula | December 29, 2006You can find several loving closeups of Davy Jones at this site—there's also some text, but it's all High Geek as near as I can tell.
pharyngula | December 29, 2006Euprymna tasmanica, camouflaged with mucus and sand
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | December 22, 2006Since it is Cephalopodmas, I think it's only fitting to throw in another Friday Cephalopod, the psychedelic Wonderpus.
Wonderpus
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | December 22, 2006Look! It's a dumbo octopus! There are some very good shots of this weird creature swimming near the middle.
pharyngula | December 22, 2006Everyone knows you're supposed to be reading Deep Sea News today for all things cephalopodial, right?