Organisms
pharyngula | February 12, 2016The Seattle aquarium isn't playing the matchmaking game with their octopuses anymore, for a chilling reason: they're afraid that a date might turn into a public cannibal orgy.
I don't recall that peril from my youth, back when I was actively dating. I'm lucky to have escaped Seattle alive!
pharyngula | February 5, 2016They're already in their pajamas. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a new exhibit of the Striped Pyjama Squid. Guess what they look like?
Adorable. That's what they look like.
pharyngula | January 15, 2016This is a new one: an octopus farm. Kanaloa Octopus Farm is open for business -- for $200, you can get your very own pet octopus.
Unfortunately, they're caught in a chicken-and-egg problem. You should not encourage the capture of cephalopods in the wild, so it's a great idea to have a breeding program to provide animals for aquarists. But they're still in the process of building up their stocks, so they're selling their smaller wild-caught octopuses, which isn't so good.
Need I point out that you also should not buy an octopus unless you have the facilities and experience to care for them…
pharyngula | January 8, 2016Don't you just love those photo series of the young'uns at different ages?
Developmental staging of Octopus bimaculoides. a Whole egg photomicrograph illustrates the egg stalk and the animal pole (asterisk) where the embryonic body forms. Extent of epiboly in this stage (st) 8 embryo is marked with arrowheads. b End on view of a stage 8 embryo with the egg capsule and yolk removed. In dark field illumination, the organ primordia are visible as ectodermal and mesodermal thickenings. The mantle anlage (m) is central, the prospective mouth (mo) at the top of the panel is anterior, and the arm…
pharyngula | December 26, 2015Toyama Bay got a visit from a mythological being, all dressed in red, on Christmas day. It was beautiful.
It seems to be Architeuthis dux, and is about 4 meters long. It just cruised in, ambled about, and the authorities plan to just let it swim away. If it can -- giant squid on the surface tend to be sick and unhappy. But still…! I'm waiting for the day one swims up the Pomme de Terre river to bring me presents.
There's more discussion about this squid (in English!) on TONMO.
pharyngula | December 22, 2015It's my first completely free day of Christmas break! Grades are all submitted, nothing is hanging over my head, but I still got up at 5:30am and needed to do something, so I learned about spider gastrulation.
This was a disgraceful gap in my knowledge -- I've worked on insects and on vertebrates, and am fairly familiar with gastrulation in those kinds of organisms, but one thing I did know is that there's a lot of variation in the details of gastrulation, so every new clade seems to exhibit some novel way of tucking cells in to the early embryo. Spiders do it in a cool way.
There are…
pharyngula | December 11, 2015We'll have to advance the invasion plan. A scout squad of paper nautiluses have been exposed off the coast of California.
Several of the scouts bravely tried to wrest the camera from the spy, but failed. We're going to have to send some muscle to accompany the reconnaissance patrols from now on -- all we needed was a few Humboldt squid to have been able to completely suppress this exposure.
Puny humans. Nothing will stop the massive Cephalopod Armada!
pharyngula | December 4, 2015OK, cephalopods, what's going on here? This is that weird dweeb from junior high school who was always getting picked on by the other kids, who is probably now running a software company and buying Ferraris like I buy red pens.
Fabien Michenet
pharyngula | December 1, 2015
This could get interesting. I've seen a lot of stories about this recent paper on the tardigrade genome:
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT), or the transfer of genes between species, has been recognized recently as more pervasive than previously suspected. Here, we report evidence for an unprecedented degree of HGT into an animal genome, based on a draft genome of a tardigrade, Hypsibius dujardini. Tardigrades are microscopic eight-legged animals that are famous for their ability to survive extreme conditions. Genome sequencing, direct confirmation of physical linkage, and phylogenetic analysis…
pharyngula | November 25, 2015I'm hearing occasional gasps of disbelief at the notion of a vegan Thanksgiving, so clearly I need to show you something to make you salivate.
Oh My Veggies
That's just an example -- we're having something different -- but honestly, you can have a tremendous variety of textures and flavors, all delicious, without killing an animal.
Also not shown: Lefse is vegetarian, don't you know.
pharyngula | November 23, 2015This is the sea slug Glaucus atlanticus, called the Blue Dragon.
Isn't it lovely? It gnaws on Portuguese Man O' Wars (men o' wars?), eating the nematocysts and concentrating the toxins in those many pointy dark blue frills. Look at them and admire their beauty, but do not touch.
pharyngula | November 20, 2015
A dead pig was caged 300m beneath the sea, with a camera trained on it, as a subject in forensic research. It has a…visitor.
pharyngula | November 18, 2015It's beautiful: the devil's fingers, AKA the octopus fungus. Even just the name is like a barbed hook calculated to draw me in.
It has other interesting features, besides the awesome appearance.
While unappealing to us humans,
Stop right there. Am I not human? Did I not coo in delight when I first saw this lovely organism? Do I not want to see my grassy yard replaced with thousands of erupting fungal eggs?
But do continue.
what you’re seeing is actually a rather ingenious method of reproduction. The tentacles are laced with a foul smelling tissue, specially formulated to attract flies and…
pharyngula | November 16, 2015My students told me today that instead of lecturing, I ought to show that video of drunk girls and puppies over and over. I didn't. But apparently everyone needs some cuteness. Will this do?
pharyngula | November 13, 2015Looking gloriously sexy for their partners and spearing prey with their tentacles.
Steinhart Aquarium
I can do neither. Way to make me feel inadequate, cuttlefish.
