Oh, those brilliant molluscs…
Another cool video of a camouflaged octopus. When spotted, the octopus tries to impress the enemy by quickly changing color – mostly white (fear and aggressiveness)). It will also inflate itself to appear bigger, thus more frightening. How cool is that ?
As you may know by now, octopuses can control both their color (thanks to their chromatophores) and their skin structure. The size of their skin projections, called Papillae is controlled through muscular hydrostat.
A muscular hydrostat is a biological structure mainly made of muscles with little or no skeletal support, which can easily change shape to bend, extend, etc. Some other examples of muscular hydrostats are our tongue and an elephant’s trunk. This is how the octopus can appear smooth, bumpy or spiky at will.
This video is a close-up of the octopus’s papillae. You can clearly see the muscular hydrostats at work, amazing !
#nature : Seagull vs. Octopus by AJLee http://ift.tt/291BESs
Baby Octopus by amotyll
All good things must come to an end, and #CephalopodWeek is no exception. But take heart! Before we close out this celebration of some of the world’s most astonishing invertebrates, we’re highlighting some of great content that this event inspired.
Our colleagues at @sciencefriday explored both the biology and psychology of octopuses (not octopi!) in this video:
Meanwhile, the @montereybayaquarium Research Institute (MBARI) assembled a remarkable highlight reel of cephalopods from around the world:
Check out much more content at the @cephalopodweek blog.
(via amnhnyc)
It’s Cephalopod Week, and all week we’ll be sharing photos of these miracle mollusks! Today, check out this octopus that Nautilus Live spotted on a recent ROV dive near Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.
We’ve teamed up with the E/V Nautilus to explore the deep habitats of many of our West Coast national marine sanctuaries this summer. Learn more here and watch livestreams of the dives at nautiluslive.org!
(Photo: OET/NOAA)
