Octopi

jd_

Well-known member
Always thought they were one of the real strange ones, I'm sure I'd have swam away revolted if I'd encountered one as a kid. I remember my cousin and I finding some giant catepillars and being so offended by their disgusting forms that we had to destroy them (I can still see them perfectly in my mind years and years later) and I could image an octopus would have filled me with a similar feeling if I was ever in a situation where I was sharing the water with it.

Anyway, the other day I sawa video of one eating a shark at some zoo. It's great, the thought of being enveloped by one is a thousand times more terrifying than being eaten alive in a shark attack. Even the video of them walking on the floor of the aquarium is revolting. Anyone else watch it?
 

jd_

Well-known member
That went around the net so it's probably old news to everyone but I just wanted to start a thread about them to see what else people knew. There's gotta be a fan lurking round here. I can't get tired of seeing that shark dragged away. It's awesome that there's something so alien that it makes a shark seem almosthuman next to it.
 

michael

Bring out the vacuum
Uh-oh, have to go on an etymology rant... If you're calling them "octopi" to be true to the etymology of the word, then "octopodes" is the better option for a plural. The -us goes to -i thing comes from Latin, while words like hippopotamus and octopus come from Greek. Sorry, big whatever, I know.

That vid's nuts (got linked to in the colossal squid thread, btw) - freaks me out no end.

This octopus looks cute I reckon - running across the sea floor on two of its arms. The vid is a QuickTime mov.

http://news.com.com/Octopuses+running+like+humans/2100-1008_3-5643806.html


bleep forwarded me a link to vid of a colour-changing octopus that honestly looked like it came out of nowhere.. found a copy at the link below. The page has a WMV file embedded.

http://www.big-boys.com/articles/octopus1.html

The thing which makes me still question the veracity of that one is the lumpy bits on the octopus... when it's disguised it looks like its back is all spiky, then it becomes smooth. Weird.

Also a bit excited by the link to the European Cuttlefish changing colours on this page. QuickTime again.

http://www.ncsu.edu/biomovies/shortclips/Inverts.html

I keep imagining it going "beedy beedy beedy" like the little robot friend of Buck Rogers.

Never mind...
 

jd_

Well-known member
"Octopuses running like humans" I saw, I confused it with this video and I thought it must have been a fake ocean bottom or something in a hazy memory. I realised it was wrong when I watched it again after finding the link but didn't think it was worth mentioning. I never read a giant squid thread though I don't think, I'll go check it out and your other links.
 

jd_

Well-known member
I swear I wrote a whole other bit to that that disappeared on hitting submit, maybe I highlighted it by mistake and wiped it out.
 

michael

Bring out the vacuum
Just hit paydirt on some crazy cephalopod vids.

Check these out:

An octopus buries itself in the sand ... super speedy

http://www.cephbase.utmb.edu/viddb/vidsrch3.cfm?ID=52&CephID=

A couple of different species with fruity fins that look like wings. I know they're octopuses and all, but I have to say they look cute. :)

http://www.cephbase.utmb.edu/viddb/vidsrch3.cfm?ID=6&CephID=462
http://www.cephbase.utmb.edu/viddb/vidsrch3.cfm?ID=19&CephID=

Do a keyword search on "web" or "skirt" on that site to see some more madness.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
My girlfriend insists the plural is 'octopodoi'...

I find them very endearing in an unearthly sort of way. They're amazingly smart too, cleverer than most mammals I think. I read somewhere they're the only invertebrates to have evolved complex eyes with lenses, but that they evolved them the 'right' way round, with the photosensitive cells uppermost and the nerves and blood vessels that supply them underneath, whereas in mammals' eyes it's the reverse, which seems weird.

Possibly not quite so cute:

vampire-squid-found-to-eat-marine-snow-inside_59705_600x450.jpg


but I think these bad boys are already covered in the 'fush' thread (or maybe John Eden's brilliant giant squid thread, remember that?)
 
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God imagine that descending on you...proper umbrella of death style horror film material

Looking up at the anatomy of that, how big a fish or whatever can it eat? Those tentacle spines look able to grip and hold a prey, then the tiny rubbery beak bit dilates and chomps as its victim is worked inwards.

We'll probably end up designing a similar system based on this vampire squid thing when mining asteroids. Envelope, engorge, digest. I want to see one eating a shopping trolley.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I believe that octopodi are able to figure out how to open jam jars (by taking the lid off rather than smashing them) which is pretty amazing if true.
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
They're the only things I won't eat, aside from rocket. But for different reasons. Octothings are blatantly super evolved things that everyone should respect, and rocket's just a disgusting middle class weed.
 
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