News tagged with octopus
Cuttlefish have high definition polarization vision, researchers discover
Cuttlefish have the most acute polarization vision yet found in any animal, researchers at the University of Bristol have discovered by showing them movies on a modified LCD computer screen to test their eyesight.
Feb 20, 2012 |
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RNA editing responsible for colder water survival in octopus
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have discovered that when it comes to the survival of an octopus living in frigid waters, the reasoning is not a difference in the gene DNA but rather a difference in the RNA editing.
Jan 06, 2012 |
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Palaeontologists solve mystery of 500 million-year-old squid-like carnivore
A study by researchers at the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum sheds new light on a previously unclassifiable 500 million-year-old squid-like carnivore known as Nectocaris pteryx.
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
May 26, 2010 |
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Argonaut mystery solved, says scientist
Scientists said Wednesday they had cracked the mystery of the paper nautilus, the brittle and translucent shell belonging to rarely-seen species of open-water octopuses called argonauts.
May 19, 2010 |
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Antarctic octopus tells story of ice-sheet collapse
Scientists have long been concerned that the massive West Antarctic Ice Sheet could collapse if global temperatures keep climbing. If it did, sea levels are predicted to rise by as much as five meters.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 07, 2012 |
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Fish mimics octopus that mimics fish
Nature's game of intimidation and imitation comes full circle in the waters of Indonesia, where scientists have recorded for the first time an association between the black-marble jawfish (Stalix cf. histrio) and th ...
Jan 04, 2012 |
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Mapping mollusks: Researchers use genetic tools to complete family tree
What do a typical garden snail and an octopus have in common, besides the occasional appearance on the plates of adventurous diners? More than you may realize. Both are mollusks, a group of animals that includes ...
Nov 02, 2011 |
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Octopuses make some pretty good moves, researchers show
In case you thought that octopuses were smart only in guessing the outcome of soccer matches (remember the late Paul the octopus in Germany who picked all the right winners in last year's world cup matches ...
May 18, 2011 |
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Press release reveals journalists believe everything they see on the Internet
The Internet is buzzing with the story of a new study that today's students are so gullible they will believe anything they see on the Internet, and are even willing to believe in the existence of an elusive ...
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Feb 09, 2011 |
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Octopus mimics flatfish and flaunts it (w/ Video)
Paul the Octopus—the eight-legged oracle who made international headlines with his amazingly accurate football forecasting—isn't the only talented cephalopod in the sea. The Indonesian mimic octopus, which ...
Aug 26, 2010 |
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When it comes to security, think 'natural'
Security systems could be more effective if officials looked at how organisms deal with threats in the natural world, University of Arizona researchers suggest in the May 20 edition of the journal Nature.
May 20, 2010 |
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A convincing mimic: Scientists report octopus imitating flounder in the Atlantic (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- On the open sand plains of the Caribbean seafloor, where soft-bodied animals are routinely exposed to predators, camouflage can be key to survival. Perhaps no group of animals is quite as ...
Mar 03, 2010 |
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Tool use in an invertebrate: The coconut-carrying octopus
Scientists once thought of tool use as a defining feature of humans. That's until examples of tool use came in from other primates, along with birds and an array of other mammals. Now, a report in the December 14th issue ...
Dec 14, 2009 |
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Cretaceous octopus with ink and suckers -- the world's least likely fossils?
New finds of 95 million year old fossils reveal much earlier origins of modern octopuses. These are among the rarest and unlikeliest of fossils. The chances of an octopus corpse surviving long enough to be fossilized are ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Mar 17, 2009 |
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Octopuses focus on key features for successful camouflage
Octopuses camouflage themselves by matching their body pattern to selected features of nearby objects, rather than trying to match the entire larger field of view, according to new research published in the ...
May 23, 2012 |
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Octopus
The octopus ( /ˈɒktəpʊs/; traditionally, plural: octopuses, see below) is a cephalopod mollusc of the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms, and like other cephalopods they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms. Octopuses have no internal or external skeleton (although some species have a vestigial remnant of a shell inside their mantle), allowing them to squeeze through tight places. Octopuses are among the most intelligent and behaviorally flexible of all invertebrates.
The octopus inhabits many diverse regions of the ocean, including coral reefs, pelagic waters, and the ocean floor. They have numerous strategies for defending themselves against predators, including the expulsion of ink, the use of camouflage and deimatic displays, their ability to jet quickly through the water, and their ability to hide. An octopus trails its eight arms behind it as it swims. All octopuses are venomous, but only one group, the blue-ringed octopuses, is known to be deadly to humans.
There are around 300 recognized octopus species, which is over one-third of the total number of known cephalopod species. The term octopus may also be used to refer only to those creatures in the genus Octopus.
For more information about Octopus, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
