Cuddly creatures with more than two arms
Cuddly creatures with more than two arms
The vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) is a small, deep-sea cephalopod found throughout the temperate and tropical oceans of the world. It's easy to imagine the vampire squid as a nightmarish predator. It lurks in the eternal midnight of the deep sea, has a dark red body, huge blue eyes, and a cloak-like web that stretches between its eight arms.
Researchers from Jerusalem’s Hebrew University have filmed crawling octopuses to learn how the animals utilized their flexible arms when they move. Until now, scientists have struggled to understand how their elaborate crawling movements are coordinated. The answer proved remarkably simple: they just choose which arm to use to push themselves along without a trace of rhythm.
The rather dark reputation of Humboldt squid has been readily reinforced by various wildlife television programs and other media which present these creatures as giant animals hungry for blood or ruthless monsters, uncompromisingly attacking their prey.
My first experience diving with mating squid was in September of 2000 during a rare late summer event off La Jolla Shores of San Diego in the U.S. state of California. To date, it still ranks as one of my all time favorite dives.
One of Australia’s most unique underwater events is facing a new challenge. The Australian giant cuttlefish mating aggregation—the world’s only large-scale cuttlefish gathering—has seen the first major decline in numbers since the event was protected from commercial fishing nearly 14 years ago.
Cuttlefish and their colorblind cousins, squid and octopus, see aspects of light, including polarized light, that are invisible to humans
Cephalopods are sensitive to the linear polarization characteristics of light. To examine if this polarization sensitivity plays a role in the predatory behaviour of cuttlefish, scientists from the University of Bristol examined the preference of cuttlefish Sepia officinalis when presented with fish whose polarization reflection was greatly reduced versus fish whose polarization reflection was not affected.
Sulawesi is one of those places on nearly every diver’s bucket list. If not, it ought to be. A dozen years ago, people would have thought you daft to go diving there, much less build a dive resort in an area dominated by dark volcanic sand. Yet in Sulawesi there are nearly two dozen resorts vying for divers’ dollars, yen and euros.
Squids, octopus and cuttlefish (who all belong to the phylum of molluscs) are among the most intelligent animals in the sea, and definitely the most intelligent marine invertebrates. We should in fact ask ourselves if the human mind is capable of thinking as fast as these creatures do.
A broad study of cephalopods - more commonly known as octopuses, cuttlefish and squid - has shown that they all possessed toxic proteins that performed functions such as paralysing the nervous system of prey.
The scientists analysed tissue samples from cephalopods from Hong Kong, the Coral Sea, the Great Barrier Reef and Antarctica.
The different species' genes were then studied for venom protection and it was found that a venomous ancestor produced one set of venom proteins, but over time additional proteins had added to the chemical arsenal.
Don't compare them to the simple rubber suction cups on kids' toy dart guns; these have their own elaborate muscular regulatory mechanisms. This diagram illustrates the internal structure of a single octopus sucker.
There are two main regions, an infundibulum (IN) on the attachment face of the sucker, and a deeper chamber called the acetabulum (A) (if you don't recall any Latin, "infundibulum" just means "funnel", while "acetabulum" is "vinegar cup"â anatomy is littered with funnels and cup-shaped structures, so these are actually very generic names).
