Comments on: Cephalopods Galore

Cephalopods Galore

Kattullus — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 23:18:06 -0800

Like squid? What about the good ol' octopus? The cuttlefish and nautilus? If you answered yes to these questions Dr. James B. Wood's Cephalopod Page is your go-to site, with information on and pictures of 25+ species of cephalopods including the aptly named (I'm sure) vampire squid from hell. The site also hosts many articles. Not sure where you stand on the coolness of cephalopods? Why don't you start by watching this video of an octopus squeezing through a one inch hole (previously on MetaFilter).

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 23:21:36 -0800

I also really like the fact that the page has been online (in one form or another) since 1995.

By: lumensimus

lumensimus — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 23:32:29 -0800

Relevant Dinosaur Comics.

By: lucidprose

lucidprose — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 23:44:20 -0800

Of the many cool aspects of Cephalopods, I have to go with the rapid color changing skin as my personal favorite. I sat and watched a cuttlefish at the aquarium until my friends dragged me out. The ease and speed which it changed color was incredibly fascinating. Has anyone found any good papers on how that mechanism works? I know it involves chromatophores, but that's about it.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 23:52:54 -0800

The cephalod section of Wikipedia's chromatophore page has pretty good information and references 2 papers.

By: kaspen

kaspen — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 23:59:36 -0800

I really hoped you'd meant, you know, like, in my belly. Yes please!

By: kickback

kickback — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 00:48:03 -0800

cephs are cool with me. so long as they stay in the ocean. the minute some french octopus invents a system of compressed, bottled water that permits them to come aground for extended periods of "observation" and "sample taking", though, things are gonna get real uncool. Perhaps culminating in a boot to the hectocotylus.

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 01:00:36 -0800

Beautiful! I am a big fan of the cephalopods. I only got to aquariums by myself, so I don't get dragged away. I linked this cephalopod locomotion page before, but I think anyone who checks out this post might love it as well.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 01:49:40 -0800

I always found squid a bit too rubbery in stateside sushi bars, but when I came to Japan I found that here it's generally more tender and tasty. That's all.

By: exlotuseater

exlotuseater — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 03:06:06 -0800

I wish I could release a cloud of mucus that contained glowing blue bioluminescent spheres, which would confuse you all so I could slip away into the darkness. That is all.

By: exlotuseater

exlotuseater — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 03:14:13 -0800

Octopi and squids are really smart, too. I remember reading anecdotes about them crawling out of aquariums, across rooms, and into other aquaria in order to eat other fishies, then crawling back, leaving a wet evidence-trail of their nighttime meanderings.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 04:27:42 -0800

Cuttlefish are really tasty, too. I remember dishes with them simmering with tomatoes, sweet basil, and their own ink-sacs, in order to be eaten by me, slurping up ink-blackened pasta, leaving a wet evidence-trail of my nighttime munchings.

By: Henry C. Mabuse

Henry C. Mabuse — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 04:35:03 -0800

fap fap fap fap fap fap fap

By: mattoxic

mattoxic — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 04:43:17 -0800

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 04:47:59 -0800

I'm so torn when I eat mollusks like the ones mentioned above. They're both my favorite animals to observe, and high on the list in taste. Cephbase has a good amount of videos, images, and other reserarchial stuff to rummage around in. (It seems to be slow this morning, though.) /me disappears, turning a lovely shade of MeFi blue

By: Henry C. Mabuse

Henry C. Mabuse — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 05:29:07 -0800

The Octopus People of Algol VII will not be happy with you.

By: subbes

subbes — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 05:31:16 -0800

I've wanted to keep cephalopods as pets, but harbour the fear that the cuttlefish would end up regarding me as their pet. Dance, two-legs! Dance! We were not meant to beeeeee.

By: edd

edd — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 05:37:18 -0800

exlotuseater's talk of escaping octopuses prompted me to do some digging. There's a snopes forum thread on the subject and more remarkably a scientific paper on the subject, which unfortunately I don't have the rights to view.

By: bitter-girl.com

bitter-girl.com — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:48:38 -0800

I am in love with this octopus and want to hug him and squeeze him and call him George.

By: quin

quin — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 07:22:32 -0800

Once again, I'll link to my tale of aquarium terror; featuring a stealthy octopus and some clown fish who were born into misfortune.

By: kuujjuarapik

kuujjuarapik — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 07:45:30 -0800

I just read the paper edd linked to above, and apparently most octopi that escape die within 10 minutes. Astroturf or open cell foam is all it takes to keep them in their tanks. Apparently, their suckers can't get a grip on it, and they can't drag themselves over it. Most comforting was the finding that the deadly Blue ringed octopus is the least likely to attempt an escape. They could just be waiting for a minion to bring you to them, but the research didn't cover that.

By: rhymer

rhymer — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 08:47:36 -0800

I love that octopus video. If we lived underwater I would totally teach my pet octopus to steal stuff*. *stuff that was less than one inch in diameter.

By: kurumi

kurumi — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 10:55:42 -0800

"After vigintillions of years great Kattullus was loose again, and ravening for delight."

By: lordrunningclam

lordrunningclam — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 13:58:44 -0800

Darn, I thought this was going to be about calamari.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 14:30:42 -0800

I'm so torn when I eat mollusks like the ones mentioned above. They're both my favorite animals to observe, and high on the list in taste. What on earth is interesting about observing oysters, clams, mussels & the like? As far as cephalopods are concerned, I prefer not to eat them where possible*, out of respect for their intelligence, ambition, big eyes, beaks, heads covered with prehensile tentacles & jet-poweredness. (*like my periods of 'soft vegetarianism', I won't order them, but nor do I turn up my nose if somebody cooks them for me)

By: lucidprose

lucidprose — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:51:30 -0800

Ah, thanks for the link Kattullus. The wiki page had a surprising amount of information. After poking around a bit I came across this nova special on the cuttlefish fantastic color changing (90 sec teaser) These snippets (particularly the second: 'a dazzling show') are fantastic.