PZ Myers' Friday Cephalopods

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

That is quite cool. Incredibly is only now that they use coconuts (instead of sea shells) that the behavior is considered tool use. 

[Aphos]

That is quite cool. Incredibly is only now that they use coconuts (instead of sea shells) that the behavior is considered tool use. 

Yes, that thought had crossed my mind, too.  If an octopus taking shelter in a coconut is tool use, should a hermit crab using a seashell also be considered tool use?

[Swatopluk]

I think a difference is that the hermit crab just takes permanent possession of its shell and will not dispose (temporarily) of it when it has something else to do (except during skin change). The shell is simply home. The octopus on the other hand was observed to store coconut shells for later use. Also the crabs seem not to have to learn the trick. In at least one subspecies it is so built in to use only the shells of a certain species that the disappearence of the latter threatens extinction of the crab. Now artificial copies of these shells are (and have to be) distributed by humans.
The use of (clam)shells for protection by octopuses is btw nothing new as these images from a documentary several decades old show. But in this case it was a female guarding her eggs and therefore staying in one place, not carrying the shell around. Interestingly the shell was collected without knowing that an octopus was in it and the eggs were spotted even later.


http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x97/Swatopluk/Krake1.jpg


http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x97/Swatopluk/krake2.jpg

[Opsa]

I still don't think of it quite as tool use. Squirrels collect nuts for future use. If the octopus used the coconut shell to break open something else, that might be tool use.

I just love the way the octo sort of squats in the shell and gallops at the same time. Wonderful motion.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

But they collect the coconuts as a shelter not as food and even in that case would put the octopus in the same league as a mammal.

The distinction with the hermits as Swato pointed out is that we are talking of a learned behavior (using an atypical object as shelter and moving it to a selected location) as opposed to an instinctive one (like the crab), more so, manipulating the object to fit a need (using two halves and closing them around) while similar to using the shells of a bivalve implies the realization (abstract thinking) of analogous use. If anything it confirms the status of cephalopods as the smartest invertebrates with an intelligence on the same level as a mammal.

[Aphos]

I still don't think of it quite as tool use. Squirrels collect nuts for future use. If the octopus used the coconut shell to break open something else, that might be tool use.

I just love the way the octo sort of squats in the shell and gallops at the same time. Wonderful motion.

Have you seen a film of an iridescent cuttlefish?  They rarely swim.  Mostly, they get around by walking on the sea bottom.  They walk on their two fins and two of their tentacles.  It is a strange, stately walk, slow and dignified...as if to say..."*I* am extremely poisonous.  *I* don't need to hurry."

[Aphos]

A new picture today.



My, isn't he a spiffy looking guy?

[Aphos]

Merry Xmas!

And, oh yeah, a holiday appropriate cephalopod.

[Swatopluk]

The fly agaric octopus?

[Opsa]

A new picture today.



My, isn't he a spiffy looking guy?

Sorry I missed this when you first posted it. I really like him. He looks like a surfboard!

I'd call the red and white guy Santalapod!

[pieces o nine]

Sorry I missed this when you first posted it. I really like him. He looks like a surfboard!

I'd call the red and white guy Santalapod!

Oh, please don't!
DaveL myght shoot thee wee squirmy blaggard in frustrayshun at missin ole Sandy Claws agin...

[Opsa]

Aye, yer right, matey.

_{But eed prbly miss this one, as well...}

[Aphos]

Weird.  I thought I had posted this.  Anyway...

Here is a cute & cuddly octopus for ya...

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/01/friday_cephalopod_affectionate.php

[Aphos]

[Swatopluk]

Behold, Nautilus!