Organisms
pharyngula | August 14, 2006
Pycnogonids really are fascinating animals and they deserve more attention. There's a short news article on sea spiders that mentions their odd life style and their taxonomic awkwardness.
For over 100 years, scientists have been puzzling over how exactly to classify sea spiders or pycnogonids.
They crawl along the bottom of the sea floor, sometimes more than 6000 to 7000 metres down, where they live in the dark, feeding on slow-moving soft-bodied sponges and sea slugs.
The creatures are segmented and have an exoskeleton, which makes them an arthropod, the same grouping as crustaceans,…
pharyngula | August 11, 2006Octopus ornatus
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | August 10, 2006archy warns us of an invasion of giant commie crabs. Invasive species are no joke, but in this case, I can think of some solutions: they all revolve around lunch and dinner, though.
pharyngula | August 9, 2006I'd better go home and put on my "Welcome Squid Overlords" t-shirt—someone has caught an octopus…in the Ohio River.
Unfortunately, this is almost certainly a case of some bastard bringing a cephalopod home, allowing it to die, and throwing it out like a piece of garbage. When the cephalopod overlords do show up, I hope they take care of him/her first.
pharyngula | August 8, 2006Any New Jersey readers out there? Anyone from Seaside Heights?
Why didn't you tell me?
I had to find out about this exciting event in the grocery store checkout line. I was most interested to learn that it ravaged the shore line during a recent storm, but seems to have put most of its effort into destroying a church.
Hmmm. I didn't do it, officer.
pharyngula | August 7, 2006
I won't post this lovely print directly, since it might not be safe for work—not because it shows breasts, but because if any of your passing colleagues know anything about molluscan anatomy, they'll realize that that cephalopod is gnawing on her head and be horrified.
(hat tip to Leslie Madsen-Brooks)
pharyngula | August 7, 2006There is now an online petition to save the Australian Lungfish. Take a moment and put your name on it!
Also, it's not just the lungfish—as Monika Dieker reminded me, there's also the Mary River Turtle at risk.
pharyngula | August 6, 2006Here are a few miscellaneous cephalopod-related things people have sent me lately.
Here's a squid kokigami template, and assembly instructions. I confess: I was wondering what the heck it was for, until I read further. Oh. My.
Good hygiene and kokigami go well together.
A town in Japan is building a giant robotic squid. Hmmm…I should combine this with kokigami; "hello, dear, have I got a surprise for you!"
The text is about mosquitos, but it's illustrated with a nice drawing of an octopod.
The car of the future has tentacles.
pharyngula | August 6, 2006Darren Naish has a fine summary of the hypothesis that the megabats are flying primates. It's a tangled tree we're flitting about in here.
pharyngula | August 5, 2006You all remember that a program on the giant squid is on the Discovery Channel tonight, right? I'm tuned in right now.
pharyngula | August 5, 2006
Lots of people have been emailing me with the news about this filmed sequence showing a giant squid snagged on a deep line. Did you know that the paper is freely available online (pdf)? It's very cool. The researchers were jigging for squid with a 1km long line, snagged one by a tentacle, and then watched for the next four hours as it struggled to get free.
The squid's initial
attack was captured on camera (figure 3a) and shows the
two long tentacles characteristic of giant squid wrapped in
a ball around the bait. The giant squid became snagged
on the squid jig by the club of one of these…
pharyngula | August 5, 2006Yet another entry in the catalog of strange things people see that remind them of me: the Stinky Squid(Pseudocolus fusiformis), thanks to William Gulvin.
pharyngula | August 4, 2006Cranchia scabra
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | August 3, 2006I'm going to have to see if my TV still works, because the Discovery Channel is broadcasting giant squid videos on Saturday and Sunday, August 5 and 6.
(via Squid)
pharyngula | August 2, 2006
David Berner compiled a list of a few cephalopod based Maakie strips, so I'll pass them on to you. It's two good things at once.
I can almost see why an octopus would find an elephant attractive, although it might look like a heptaplegic to it.
pharyngula | August 2, 2006Watch the 'pretty' birdies land on a tree.
Lippard has also pulled out a viewer comment that you will find hard to believe.
pharyngula | July 31, 2006The carnivals du jour:
Circus of the Spineless XI
Encephalon #3
Again, this is also an open thread. I got a comment on the last one that more open threads are needed. Is that true? I don't need to go to Atrios-level open-threadery, of course, but if you'd like these a little more often, let me know.
pharyngula | July 31, 2006
The other day, I was asked a simple question that I knew the answer to, right off the top of my head, and since I'm nothing but lazy and lovin' the easy stuff, I thought I'd expand on it a bit here. The question was, "How do flounder get to be that way, with their eyes all on one side of the head?" And the answer is…pedantic and longwinded, but not too difficult.
The Pleuronectiformes, or flatfish, are a successful teleost order with about 500 known species, some of which are important commercially and are very tasty. The key to their success is their asymmetry: adults are camouflaged ambush…
pharyngula | July 31, 2006A reader discovered this fascinating graffiti in downtown Minneapolis, near the transit center on Hennepin Avenue.
In Minneapolis! So far from the sea, but I'm not alone in pining for it.
I may have to look this up. This is a travel week for me, as I have to run around taking care of some essential pre-school year duties—I'm actually sitting in the St Cloud mall right now, watching the senior citizens do their laps, while waiting for our car to get some minor repairs and maintenance—and tomorrow I have to run in to the university to attend a meeting and to the airport to dispose of one of my…