Contrary to most mollusks, octopuses have a closed circulatory system (i.e. blood is contained within vessels). To pump the flow,
Octopuses have three hearts: two branchial hearts and one systemic heart
The branchial hearts pump blood to the gills, where oxygen is taken up. Blood then flows to the systemic heart, where it is pumped to the rest of the body.
They are all located at the back of the mantle, so you will often see anatomy illustration with the legend “heart” instead of “hearts”.
Thanks to M.J. Wells studies, we also know that when an octopus is really excited or startled, its heart misses a beat or two. Fortunately, any single octopus heart can stop for some time, the remaining two providing enough circulation to keep the animal alive for a while (more on that, and love, in another post).
Some Kaiju close ups! Every day I’m amazed at how complex these animals are. It seems like overkill how many little jigsaw pieces go into them, especially their mouths, what’s up with that? A crayfish is a sarcastic rainbow of an animal with hard mean bits and sharp edges all over, with some nonsensical furry whiskers in seemingly random places and long graceful antennae that seem like more trouble than they’re worth.
Though they superficially resemble the common land dwelling insect the cockroach (and like the cockroach will consume anything in front of them) the crayfish does not scurry and hide when set upon but rather takes arms against a sea of troubles and endeavors (occasionally with success) to inflict bodily harm on the attacker. Though it stands little chance of winning, it ensures its captor’s victory is a costly one.
Every day I stop at her tank to feed her, and every day I admire her tenacity, ferocity, complexity and otherwordly beauty. Little Kaiju blue, little cherax quadricarinatus, I love you.
Q:I'm not sure if it applies to one specific species of eels or all of them, but did you know that they have a second pair of jaws deep in their throat? When they bite down on their prey the second pair of jaws launches from the back of the throat and drags the prey deep into the throat of the eel. The "aliens" movie got there design from them.
ahh yeah the pharyngeal jaws ! theres actually a BUNCH of fish that have a little pair of em inside, but youre right in that moray eels specifically have a pair that are SUPER mobile compaired to other fish
whats amazing is just how FAR BACK they are when not in use - cichlid fish are also pretty well known for em, in that they have a less impressive set that works mainly the same way !
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