Octopus

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#10     Why the Octopus Lost Its Shell,More info:livescience

The ancestors of octopuses and squid once sported hard shells, but when did they lose their “mobile homes” and become agile, soft-bodied swimmers? A new study finds that this change may have occurred during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

Squishy creatures like squid and octopuses rarely leave behind well-preserved fossils. That has left scientists perplexed over when in the creatures’ evolutionary history these cephalopods lost their shells. Researchers have now used a mix of fossil and genetic models to solve the puzzle.

The ancestors of some modern cephalopods began to lose their shells during the so-called Mesozoic Marine Revolution. In this period, marine reptiles, certain fishes and other predators began to appear in the oceans, prompting prey to evolve to be more heavily armored or have other avoidance strategies to survive, the researchers said. Some cephalopods, like belemnites, sported internal shells, or skeletons, for instance, the scientists said.

#9     Octopus Steals Crab From Fisherman | Super Smart Animals | BBC Earth,More info:BBC Earth

 

#8     OCTOPUS,More info:nationalgeographic

Octopuses are sea animals famous for their rounded bodies, bulging eyes, and eight long arms. They live in all the world’s oceans but are especially abundant in warm, tropical waters. Octopuses, like their cousin, the squid, are often considered “monsters of the deep,” though some species, or types, occupy relatively shallow waters.

Most octopuses stay along the ocean’s floor, although some species are pelagic, which means they live near the water’s surface. Other octopus species live in deep, dark waters, rising from below at dawn and dusk to search for food. Crabs, shrimps, and lobsters rank among their favorite foods, though some can attack larger prey, like sharks. Octopuses typically drop down on their prey from above and, using powerful suctions that line their arms, pull the animal into their mouth. The octopus performs its famous backward swim by blasting water through a muscular tube on the body called a siphon. Octopuses also crawl along the ocean’s floor, tucking their arms into small openings to search for food. Seals, whales, and large fish prey on octopuses.

#7     Why a Seal Smacked Kayaker in the Face with an Octopus,More info:livescience

 

#6     A NEWFOUND ‘OCTOPUS CITY’ RESURFACES OLD QUESTIONS ABOUT THE ANIMAL’S SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE,More info:psmag

Despite his name, Squidward Q. Tentacles—the grouchy neighbor of SpongeBob SquarePants in Nickelodeon’s long-running cartoon—isn’t a squid. He’s an octopus. (Allegedly, creator Stephen Hillenburg named him Squidward because “Octoward” sounded too weird.) On the show, Squidward lives inside a moai head at 122 Conch Street, next door to SpongeBob’s pineapple, in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom.

A sarcastic loner, he tries to avoid the relentlessly chipper sponge and his other neighbor, the slow-witted starfish Patrick, by staying in, drinking tea, and practicing the clarinet. You know what they say: An octopus’ moai is his castle.

Hillenburg, as many of the show’s fans know, used to be a marine biologist, and it turns out that Squidward’s domestic bent is shared by octopuses in the real world. The species has long been known to collect bits and pieces from the sea floor to make “gardens” (thanks, Ringo) or build themselves personal dens. But now comes evidence that Tentacle Acres—the cephalopod-only community that Squidward briefly moves to in season two of SpongeBob—is not just a fiction

#5     Behold the octopus: Problem solver, tool user and now, gene editor,More info:geneticliteracyproject

There are a few things to learn about octopuses: First – the plural of ‘octopus’ is indeed ‘octopuses,’ not ‘octopi.’ Second – they are thought to be, by far, the smartest invertebrates on the planet. They  use tools, solve mazes and puzzles, and generally exhibit a host of ‘smart’ behaviors. They also can do something similar to ‘taste’ with their tentacles, they have blue blood, and they can even see polarized light, offering them a visual experience underwater not shared by some of their cohabitants.

And now we learn that they may be able to edit their own genes to help them adapt to their environment and solve problems.

Octopuses are tremendously de-centralized organisms — billions of their own cells act, to some degree, nearly autonomously to sense and respond or react to the environment in ways that defy our normal everyday experiences. Marine ecologist Rafe Sagarin documents how this de-centralized organizational structure provides unique survival and adaptation advantages in his book Learning From The Octopus. He also explains how this model can be useful for many challenges, including counter-terrorism.

#4     The Maldives octopuses,More info:New Atlantis WILD

 

#3     Why is the octopus so smart?,More info:boingboing

 

#2     Octopus finds nice human arm, gets really attached,More info:earthtouchnews

When an octopus latches on to a human arm it likes, it can take some persuasion to get it to relinquish its prize. That’s the lesson one Australian diver learned while out snorkelling for rock lobster in the waters off Perth recently.

#1     ASOCIAL OCTOPUSES ON ECSTASY JUST WANT HUGS, SCIENTISTS SAY,More info:hub.jhu

By studying the genome of a kind of octopus not known for its friendliness, then testing its behavioral reaction to the popular mood-altering drug MDMA, or ecstasy, scientists say they have found preliminary evidence of an evolutionary link between the social behaviors of the sea creature and humans, species separated by 500 million years on the evolutionary tree.

A summary of the experiments is published Thursday in Current Biology, and if the findings are validated, the researchers say, they may open opportunities for accurately studying the impact of psychiatric drug therapies in many animals distantly related to people.

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