Can you spot the octopus ?
The octopus’ skills in term of camouflage are amazing. It takes them a few millisecond to completely change their appearance, becoming one with their surroundings.
date a girl covered with brilliant blue rings. date a girl who contains enough tetrodotoxin to kill an adult human. date a girl who primarily eats small crustaceans. date a blue ringed octopus
Source: dateagirlwhosweird
The blue-ringed octopuses (genus Hapalochlaena) are three (or perhaps four) octopus species that live in tide pools and coral reefs in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, from Japan to Australia.
Contrary to popular belief, the blue-ringed octopus is not the only venomous octopus. In fact, studies have shown all octopuses are venomous. The blue-ringed, however, is the only octopus with venom powerful enough to kill a human.
(via end0skeletal)
underwater photography by Andrew Shpatak
The scientific explanation for why humans are so convinced that aliens look like octopuses
From the cartoonish Zoidberg (Futurama) and Kang and Kodos (The Simpsons) to the aliens of Prometheus and Arrival, modern storytellers seem particularly fond of drawing upon the deep for inspiration.
In many ways, it makes sense to use the squid and octopus as models for alien life. The oceans are like an alien world, with an atmosphere we cannot breathe that gives birth to bizarre forms beyond our imaginations. And cephalopods are about as far from the classic mammalian arrangement as you can get—yet they display surprising intelligence.
The differences between our minds and theirs are evolutionary. Cephalopod intellect evolved under very different conditions than most creatures we consider intelligent. […]
Cephalopods live brief, antisocial lives. Even large species like the giant Pacific octopus last but a few years, and want little to do with other octopuses outside of copulation. Their minds didn’t evolve to form social bonds or lasting relationships. We don’t really know why they’re so smart or what evolutionary pressures led to their relative brilliance, though some think it may have to do with adapting to a life without a shell (an hypothesis that could also explain their short lifespans). Their intelligence, like their eight-legged, boneless bodies, is truly alien, even though both are from this world.
While cephalopods have inspired countless science fiction authors, it’s intriguing that they are almost entirely absent from abduction accounts.
“I’ve seen no more reports of tentacles on UFO aliens than I could count on my fingers, […] the aliens that show up in purported real-life encounters “are a bit like us… something we can relate to.”
(via 0ct0pus)
Source: qz.com
“Out of the book”
I made this out of old books, I wanted to try something different, so I did an octopus coming out of a book. This was suppose to be a gift for my older brother…but, seems he didn’t like it that much.
Title: ‘A Giant Octopus Takes on All Corners at the Fish Market at Nihonbashi’ (c.1881). By Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892). Series: ‘Tokyo Kaika Kyoga Meisho (Comic Pictures of Famous Places in Enlightened Tokyo)’.
Cephalopods are quick-change artists. Like a living LCD screen, their skin can flicker and flash, or create complex patterns for camouflage and communication. Layers of specialized skin cells interact to match the environment’s color and texture.
You can see the largest, most diverse living exhibit of cephalopods ever created in our special exhibition Tentacles: The Astounding Lives of Octopuses, Squid and Cuttlefishes.
(via fuckyeahoctopus)
Source: montereybayaquarium
