D'AWWWWCTOPUS: post yr images of adorable octopuses here (no squid allowed)

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSKBeaP88eBH0zUP0wED9n3d-9-8v1Zlagz9AmRRH72Bk3_FWDG

http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/6555090-3x2-940x627.jpg

https://cdn.video.nationalgeographic.com/dims4/default/07a28d2/2147483647/thumbnail/354x199%3E/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpmdvod.nationalgeographic.com%2FNG_Video%2F656%2F19%2F170407-octopus-clings-to-diver-hand-vin__640x360_922999363639.jpg

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rX-YiYHahoo/maxresdefault.jpg

https://imgix.ranker.com/user_node_img/50047/1000928879/original/octopuses-have-blue-blood-photo-u1?w=650&q=50&fm=jpg&fit=crop&crop=faces

http://i.giftrunk.com/ctnnvp.gif

https://static.tumblr.com/6037731227922232d00aa12b3067feb0/8jbdnhz/mLxoue73u/tumblr_static_tumblr_static_77nivhplzasco0sc4c08sk88c_640.gif

bookmarked

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fjHbD-nLa-M/WIrqrzShXuI/AAAAAAAACjI/jUWLVqZ94wkC8iKh4Cxl2mu-1wrvMJ5rwCLcB/s640/mimic-octopus-o.gif

https://media1.tenor.com/images/40490dd6c83052de5bf9f1be06ea4c01/tenor.gif?itemid=7442178

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL3M_DcO6wk

http://i.imgur.com/z396toO.gif

https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/1347a417a7ccfd31bae4e1e2b6222c31?width=1024

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Gloomy_Octopus-Octopus_tetricus.JPG

https://www.dailydot.com/wp-content/uploads/8a3/1a/cutiepus-red2.gif

they truly are superior beings aren't they

love 'em

http://chooseyourcurrent.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/giphy-1.gif

it's kind of a bummer that they are delicious

i can't bring myself to eat octopus anymore tbh

http://www.gifbin.com/bin/112010/1291113125_octopus-camouflage.gif

https://media.giphy.com/media/138LgCYr5DVAUo/giphy.gif

facehugger.gif

lol yes i can't get it to post

haha. lovely thraed

I think I'm starting to warm to octopuses now.

come on in, the water's lovely

(and filled with octopuses)

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7e/9f/30/7e9f306fd62090babe0b9cd632a28cf4.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/h0wilCq.gif

protection wheeeeee!

https://www.guitar-muse.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Octoguitar.jpg

eight arms to rock u

you, a wise evolutionary scientist: "octopuses have learnt to armour themselves with coconut shells"
me, an internet clown: THEY FUCKING LOVE IT

http://i.imgur.com/TYFZyjs.gif

PLUR.

http://www.residentadvisor.net/images/news/2017/octooctawherearewegoingalbum.jpg

https://hips.hearstapps.com/pop.h-cdn.co/assets/15/14/1428095150-octopus.gif?crop=1xw:1.0xh;center,top&resize=480:*

http://www.animalanswers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/34777tx.gif

https://i.redd.it/dexbwh2947vz.gif

http://i.imgur.com/zYKmo7g.gif

pixar couldn't make the lil' un much cueter than that.

https://i.imgur.com/MpzuCeq.gifzq

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2c/e9/dc/2ce9dc2d28e2f80394f684bc54dba14e.gif

lord almighty look at that li'l guy

https://i.imgur.com/RYPkDA3.gif

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRLLnmqpGas

lol i had one of those

Genuinely shocked I never thought to start a cute octopus thread.

https://media3.rbl.ms/i/?u=%2f8xD4p8L37yWuk.gif&h=https%3a%2f%2fi.giphy.com&c=4121437786

SQUID ALERT

https://media.giphy.com/media/VbIbtOIPanrt6/giphy.gif

http://www.gifbin.com/bin/012012/camouflaged-octopus.gif

This is excellent background:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n17/amia-srinivasan/the-sucker-the-sucker

Captive octopuses appear to be aware of their captivity; they adapt to it but also resist it. When they try to escape, which is often, they tend to wait for a moment they aren’t being watched. Octopuses have flooded laboratories by deliberately plugging valves in their tanks with their arms. At the University of Otago, an octopus short-circuited the electricity supply – by shooting jets of water at the aquarium lightbulbs – so often that it had to be released back into the wild. Jean Boal, a cephalopod researcher at Millersville University in Pennsylvania, reported feeding octopuses in a row of tanks with thawed squid, not an octopus’s favourite food. Returning to the first tank, Boal found that the octopus in it hadn’t eaten the squid, but was instead holding it out in its arm; watching Boal, it slowly made its way across the tank and shoved the squid down the drain.

http://www.gifbin.com/bin/042015/1430157757_octopus_hunts_crab.gif

(octo hunts crab)

xp Think you linked to that before on some animal thread. One of my fave things I read last year.

good to see octopuses share my ‘fuck squid, they are garbage’ outlook

I strongly condemn these vile displays of cephalopod racism

https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2015-04/21/14/enhanced/webdr14/anigif_original-4682-1429640222-4.gif?downsize=715:*&output-format=auto&output-quality=auto

i can't bring myself to eat octopus anymore tbh

― your skeleton is ready to hatch (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, January 24, 2018 11:20 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same, i phased it out in the last year or so.

https://78.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly6h11neeC1qbypg1o1_400.jpg

https://78.media.tumblr.com/f4826ca5a0f54b4580c745d42dd960a0/tumblr_inline_o6kqg7CJln1qk45js_500.gif

Not a squid!

http://tybe.tumblr.com/post/162917051923/montereybayaquarium-tybe-montereybayaquarium

Giant Pacific Octopuses aren't so much cute as beautiful.

https://78.media.tumblr.com/b71bc8cbfdf2395b4df549cadfeba57f/tumblr_o4ys49vfDl1uap0hno1_1280.jpg

Also they are very DNFW:

https://youtu.be/_HNZePQosxU

i can't bring myself to eat octopus anymore tbh

― your skeleton is ready to hatch (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, January 24, 2018 11:20 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same, i phased it out in the last year or so.

― call all destroyer, Wednesday, January 24, 2018 1:20 PM (thirty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

just curious, why?

feels wrong to eat something so patently intelligent, mainly

hypocritical and/or logically inconsistent, i know, since i do still eat other animals, but there’s just something about octopuses 🤷‍♂️

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/69/96/00/699600e8fff505c50101f7c9dcecb862--clam-shells-clams.jpg

xp yeah that's basically my take

https://www.instagram.com/p/BeZAhwVlsRl/

I highly recommend the recent book "The Soul of an Octopus" by Sy Montgomery. Some amazing stories of her getting to know them as individuals.

https://78.media.tumblr.com/1eed17006c93432d6a78b66c04a27660/tumblr_on4y8t4g5o1w5v92so6_500.gif

(film serial The Trail of the Octopus, dir. Duke Worne, 1919)

hawt

octinderpus

just finished reading sy montgomery’s soul of an octopus, it is fkn rad and made me cry a couple of times

how do i shot octopus friendship

https://i.imgur.com/FlEbQx8.gifv

d'awww indeed

octocuddles

fyi In Our Time had an episode on cephalopods recently

I was amazed to learn that octopus are so short-lived. It takes smart mammals ages to mature, but these lil guys just come out of the gate like “good morning, I’m a scientist.”

Yes squid but if you complain you are heartless.

https://youtu.be/3ivMSCi-Y2Q

Fantastic.

Ed Yong! He's grand.

https://78.media.tumblr.com/777a9e3f6d363e30f910193a8969389d/tumblr_ok1ay45Vh21rr6qypo1_500.jpg

<3_<3

look at those tiny li’l suckers

what a cutie

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DVnJ9nhV4AMN_lz.jpg

https://laughingsquid.com/baby-octopuses-burst-out-of-their-egg-sacs/

https://youtu.be/wv7DfebpL7E

whoops...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv7DfebpL7E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qw8bAdIS_E

<3 baby cthulhu

Oh, I hope octopuses replace us after the nuclear conflagration...

What a thread:

Good one, @TheEconomist, very original and not propagandistic at all.

Depicted:
1. 'The Economist,' 2018
2. 'St. Louis Globe-Democrat,' 1980
3. 'Catholic Library Service,' 1938
4. Fred W. Rose, 1877 pic.twitter.com/VvH429MytP

— Nima Shirazi (@WideAsleepNima) February 24, 2018

media that didn't get the "adorable" memo imo

Great thread.

I especially like the Alice the goon like Prussian octopus

"The Prussian Octopus," 1915.

This British map shows an aggressive Prussian octopus, the heart of the expanding German Empire, along with a rather sad-looking Austria Hungarian octopus. pic.twitter.com/kgLLxouOyU

— Nima Shirazi (@WideAsleepNima) February 24, 2018

And the Chicago vice octopus

In honor of World Octopus Day, here's a 1910 illustration showing Chicago's Levee in the grip of VICE's tentacles. https://t.co/SzFaYpAt5F pic.twitter.com/jNWF4Cvo5U

— Robert Loerzel (@robertloerzel) October 8, 2017

nima shirazi good, demonising our octopals bad

Prussian bonobo octopals pretty adorable IMO.

Was effusing about Soul of an Octopus earlier. Made me blub a bit.

Does ILX support gifv?
https://i.imgur.com/17kwhW2.gifv

Okay video here

<3

sy montgomery describing the skin of an octopus head as ‘soft as custard’ has really stuck with me, that li’l guy looks totally strokable

I've photographed a number of them, but they're universally shy. Nearly all scuba divers will avoid harassing octopuses in their natural environment, but this little fella seems a bit odd. Don't inadvertantly stick a finger around their beak under the mantle, they can take the tip off in a single bite.

i was just gonna ask "don't they bite with that beak?" they look terrifyingly sharp.

Their tongues are also covered in teeth (but that goes against the AWWW directive of this thread).

Where's he goin'?

https://i.imgur.com/hO56wvK.gifv

A very curious octopus. pic.twitter.com/EgSyRKT8SW

— Apolonis Aphrodisia (@A_aphrodisia) March 2, 2018

(this is the one sanpaku posted)

https://68.media.tumblr.com/5905a833d3f670aec8ded4a97d34b040/tumblr_onwfaeAEtM1vbghcjo1_1280.jpg

Mark (and sanpaku) I love that video thanks

https://78.media.tumblr.com/537aa493c0fd7e862b34393e9336f36c/tumblr_p524o1LIy31vlks32o1_500.jpg

That is genuinely amazing.

It's....something.

https://78.media.tumblr.com/4c66838a0c35fd3b4a3a9091d80a8532/tumblr_p4tmhqnHT51qm9k25o1_r3_500.gif

v delicate li'l guy, would stroke

https://twitter.com/i/moments/970432629320355840

oops i mean

pic.twitter.com/LFWkcdQo6Y

— MꙬse Allain (@MooseAllain) March 4, 2018

https://68.media.tumblr.com/e8a831d66fac1cb6009133264d34e2c1/tumblr_p5fn3cKFZo1vlks32o1_1280.jpg

https://78.media.tumblr.com/3ca68d9a9d7108dcefd73b505d352ecf/tumblr_p0j2vnaYXi1rraqsio1_1280.jpg

wow what a beauty

more like awe-ctopus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=Kl5A7gHsoRc

https://68.media.tumblr.com/e8ffbb6837265accf28fc4f696097440/tumblr_om3xtpwjUq1s1vn29o1_1280.jpg

kind of lol but mostlyaaaiiyeeeTF?!

1) flabby bits
2) intelligent
3) mostly relax
4) wrinkles

octopus is basically a damp kind of elephant

https://montereybayaquarium.tumblr.com/post/172330204589/anoceanloverworld-cuttlefish-can-change-color-to

he look like a hippo

ha he does

oh my god the algae octopus
https://i.imgur.com/M0scGnO.jpg

angular! i love him!

He looks like a golden wizard!

If the world lasted long enough, would the world’s animals evolve to a most-charismatic-to-humans state?

That's a very good point - I worked with a conservation agency one time and they referred to "charismatic megafauna" - as in, people are only motivated to save large, appealing animals.

Or, in this thread's case, animals that show surprising intelligence and occasionally psychic abilities regarding football matches.

To try to answer Hunt3r's questions seriously, charisma is one way to go, another would be to taste good to humans, or to be hardy enough to survive in radically different (read: warmer) environments.

"large" as in "bigger than nematodes" - octopuses are both charismatic and megafauna

Now reading the Peter Godfrey-Smith OTHER MINDS book about octopus intelligence and it is soooooo goooood

I find the actual anatomy of octopus brains rather fascinating. Essentially, it seems most of it is in two lobes behind each eye processing visual information, with relatively little mass devoted to integrating everything into unified neural correlates of the world outside. Their esophagus passes through their brain.

http://tolweb.org/tree/ToLimages/vampbrainvent3.400a.jpg

Also worth noting, octopuses do not recognize themselves in the mirror test. Really no fault to them, we can't all be magpies, bottlenose dolphins, killer whales, or some primates.

They're similar to dogs in this respect, though of course dogs can recognize other individuals and do appear to have some second order theory of mind, if lacking a first order one.

I see cephalopods as brilliant examples of "the other way to do it" - we centralise our nervous systems so that sensory inputs can be compared, limbs can be cross-coordinated, etc. whereas they are kind of like "intelligent tissue" in that much of their sophistication is achieved in a decentralised, democratic way, an independent control ganglion for each tentacle, communicating with the distributed brain shown above. Or maybe we can equate the tentacle ganglia with our spinal cord, which is the vertebrate centre for embodied intelligence and coordination (and gets very little respect for its sophistication, because it does its work literally without calling attention to its activity). Cephalopod skin is one of their most interesting attributes - its reconfigurable texture and colour is a whole other interaction and communication system, and induces reactions in other cephalopods the same way that we use language, but it seems like a more direct coupling of influence rather than something encoded and decoded.

Or to stretch a metaphor, maybe the human CNS is like the old mainframe systems with multiple terminals running from a common resource, whereas an octopus resembles the Internet of Things with small agents processing independently and messaging to coordinate.

this link won't work but add a parenthesis onto it after it doesn't:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhizome_(philosophy)

the v enjoyable lrb review of the peter godfrey-smith book has this:

Like humans, they have centralised nervous systems, but in their case there is no clear distinction between brain and body. An octopus’s neurons are dispersed throughout its body, and two-thirds of them are in its arms: each arm can act intelligently on its own, grasping, manipulating and hunting. (Octopuses have arms, not tentacles: tentacles have suckers only at their tips. Squid and cuttlefish have a combination of arms and tentacles.) In evolutionary terms, the intelligence of octopuses is an anomaly. The last common ancestor between octopuses on the one hand, and humans and other intelligent animals (monkeys, dolphins, dogs, crows) on the other, was probably a primitive, blind worm-like creature that existed six hundred million years ago. Other creatures that are so evolutionarily distant from humans – lobsters, snails, slugs, clams – rate pretty low on the cognitive scale. But octopuses – and to some extent their cephalopod cousins, cuttlefish and squid – frustrate the neat evolutionary division between clever vertebrates and simple-minded invertebrates. They are sophisticated problem solvers; they learn, and can use tools; and they show a capacity for mimicry, deception and, some think, humour.

and a couple of great anecdotes:

Since a comparison with the human brain tells us so little, scientists turn to the octopus’s behaviour as the best indicator of its cognitive power. But here researchers are often frustrated by what Godfrey-Smith describes as a ‘mismatch’ between anecdotal reports and experimental studies. In the lab, octopuses do fairly well: they can navigate mazes, use memory to solve simple puzzles and unscrew jars and child-proof bottles to get food (octopuses have also been filmed opening jam jars from the inside). Yet it can take octopuses a surprisingly long time to be trained in new behaviours, which some researchers have taken as a sign of their cognitive limitations

..

In 1959, Peter Dews, a Harvard scientist, trained three octopuses there to pull a lever to obtain a chunk of sardine. Two of the octopuses, Albert and Bertram, pulled the lever in a ‘reasonably consistent’ manner. But the third, Charles, would anchor his arms on the side of the tank and apply great force to the lever, eventually breaking it and bringing the experiment to a premature end. Dews also reported that Charles repeatedly pulled a lamp into his tank, and that he ‘had a high tendency to direct jets of water out of the tank; specifically … in the direction of the experimenter’. ‘This behaviour,’ Dews wrote, ‘interfered materially with the smooth conduct of the experiments, and is … clearly incompatible with lever-pulling.’ He concluded that his experiment was a partial failure.

and

Captive octopuses appear to be aware of their captivity; they adapt to it but also resist it. When they try to escape, which is often, they tend to wait for a moment they aren’t being watched. Octopuses have flooded laboratories by deliberately plugging valves in their tanks with their arms. At the University of Otago, an octopus short-circuited the electricity supply – by shooting jets of water at the aquarium lightbulbs – so often that it had to be released back into the wild. Jean Boal, a cephalopod researcher at Millersville University in Pennsylvania, reported feeding octopuses in a row of tanks with thawed squid, not an octopus’s favourite food. Returning to the first tank, Boal found that the octopus in it hadn’t eaten the squid, but was instead holding it out in its arm; watching Boal, it slowly made its way across the tank and shoved the squid down the drain. (The third-century Roman rhetorician Claudius Aelianus, a more sympathetic observer than Aristotle, identified the octopus’s main characteristic as ‘mischief and craft’.)

charles t. octopus sounds like a real asshole, i like his style

That review is fascinating, I think I need more reading on this subject.

Rawr!

https://78.media.tumblr.com/a06a31e6a4ba81753763c900b2a3be81/tumblr_p4l9vj2ucL1r2rgtao1_540.jpg

CUTTLEFISH DETECTED

no squid allowed

DO NOT CARE.

https://montereybayaquarium.tumblr.com/post/175019562233/striped-pyjama-squid-sepioloidea-lineolata

https://78.media.tumblr.com/7f9bb2908170f4eb16489de6ca02d4f0/tumblr_padl4tAh6J1ui50dco1_1280.jpg

a scaly boi!

It almost looks like the head of an elephant!

Did you guys see the dawctopus who landed on the guy's windshield?

(Not a joke.)

i uh waht

https://scontent.fnyc1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/35844796_10157573356564465_6633569738767204352_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&_nc_eui2=AeFdV5nuhLLCfzgnPbG-YYBrvcRUy5qbt7l7AnddvCG1k41F4f_dU35NN3r-7U711RPK_L8S0-MrVAAGSEuKhtUeWfn7SqgiDRH_n3Rg60vJjQ&oh=8af99c0d71f5b216e3a64e1039a0ce3d&oe=5BE9CA2D

wtf sky octopuses are a thing now?

lol

everything else is insane and freakish in the world right now so WHY NOT?

(There was a storm in China and the seas got so rough that aquatic animals were flying everywhere and landing on cars!)

Paul Thomas Anderson is kicking himself rn

lol yep - immediately thought of Magnolia when I first saw it

🎵eight is the loneliest number🎵

hee hee

bg u are a gift

https://78.media.tumblr.com/9426e3b2b4de0d8ebb2974161a0fbfb6/tumblr_pbmpid3o2L1s1vn29o1_640.jpg

have you seen a cuter beverage?

YEAH FUCK HIM UP OCTOBRO

https://78.media.tumblr.com/b92840401dba67352cd9387bae7e29ae/tumblr_pburlpvFFt1s2jikwo5_1280.jpg

This is a high-quality thread despite the squidphobic title

look if you wanna see squid you're welcome to start your own thread ffs

even more squiddities and sepiidies of the schooling class - the other cephalopod thread

my man

that is a reasonable compromise, or, if you will, a squid pro quo

my beautiful thread, ruined

eight arms to fp u

What's a few arms between friends?

https://giant.gfycat.com/DarlingFalseEyas.webm

*_*

OCTOPUSES IN KILLER RAVE DRUG SHOCK

When humans take the drug MDMA, versions of which are known as molly or ecstasy, they commonly feel very happy, extraverted, and particularly interested in physical touch. A group of scientists recently wondered whether this drug might have a similar effect on other species—specifically, octopuses, which are seemingly as different from humans as an animal can be. The results of their experiment, in which seven octopuses took MDMA, were “unbelievable.”

Just think about an octopus—other than their impressive intelligence, they have little in common with humans. We’ve been heading along different branches of the evolutionary tree for 500 million years. Rather than one localized brain with a cortex, or a highly folded outer layer like our brains have, an octopus’s decentralized nervous system includes control centers for each arm in addition to a brain.

Given how different we are, Gül Dölen and her colleague Eric Edsinger wondered whether the chemistry behind human social behaviors—the system controlling the serotonin molecule—also existed in the solitary, asocial octopus. They began by analyzing the octopus genome, and found that octopuses, too, have genes that seem to code for serotonin transporters, proteins responsible for moving serotonin molecules into brain cells. Serotonin is the molecule generally considered to be responsible for feeling good. When humans take MDMA, it binds to serotonin transporter proteins and changes the way serotonin travels between brain cells, likely producing the warm and fuzzy high and perhaps the increased extraversion that the drug is known for.

The fun began when the researchers gave MDMA to seven Octopus bimaculoides octopuses inside laboratory tanks. They hoped to test whether the animals behaved more socially after receiving a dose of MDMA—a sign that the drug bound to their serotonin transporters.

After hanging out in a bath containing ecstasy, the animals moved to a chamber with three rooms to pick from: a central room, one containing a male octopus and another containing a toy. This is a setup frequently used in mice studies. Before MDMA, the octopuses avoided the male octopus. But after the MDMA bath, they spent more time with the other octopus, according to the study published in Current Biology. They also touched the other octopus in what seemed to be an exploratory, rather than aggressive, manner.

The scientists took this to mean that despite our vastly different brains, social behavior is built into the very molecules coded by our DNA, Dölen explained.

“An octopus doesn’t have a cortex, and doesn’t have a reward circuit,” Dölen, assistant professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, told Gizmodo. “And yet it’s able to respond to MDMA and produce the same effects, in an animal with a totally different brain organization. To me, that means we really need to appreciate that the business end of these things is at the level of the molecule.”

You’re probably curious: did the octopuses freak out? The scientists didn’t discuss such behavior in the paper, because it’s hard to quantify without anthropomorphizing the octopuses—Dölen warned me that the following is anecdotal evidence and not scientific observation. But yes, the octopuses acted like they took ecstasy. At first, when they received a little too much MDMA, they breathed erratically and turned white. But on lower doses, one animal “looked like it was doing water ballet,” swimming around with outstretched arms. Another spent part of the time doing flips, and another seemed especially interested in minor sounds and smells.

“This was such an incredible paper, with a completely unexpected and almost unbelievable outcome,” Judit Pungor, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oregon not involved in the study, told Gizmodo. “To think that an animal whose brain evolved completely independently from our own reacts behaviorally in the same way that we do to a drug is absolutely amazing.”

There are limitations to the study, of course. Dölen pointed out that seven octopuses isn’t a large enough sample size to show differences between how males and females react to MDMA. She’d like to further test the changes in behavior, as well as what happens if they block the serotonin transmitter before giving the MDMA. Such a test would convince Dölen that she was really seeing the affects of MDMA on serotonin transporters. Pungor also wanted to test whether the drug would have different effects on octopuses of varying ages, or whether an octopus’s upbringing changed its sociality.

It’s clear that psychoactive drugs like MDMA, LSD, and magic mushrooms are going through a scientific renaissance—they’re being studied as potential treatments for depression and PTSD—and as their stigma decreases, scientists are more open to studying them, and more research funding becomes available. This could be important for our understanding of animal and human brains.

“People are beginning to recognize that these drugs are powerful tools for understanding how the brain evolved,” Dölen told Gizmodo. “They’re such strong activators of these behaviors. It’s not subtle.”

https://gizmodo.com/scientists-gave-mdma-to-octopuses-and-what-happened-was-1829191638

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--MQPgrDuf--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/nookdfd7oij8yicx492s.jpg

The results of their experiment, in which seven octopuses took MDMA, were “unbelievable.”

got this far & c+p’d to say I bet I find the results 100% super-believable

the scientists missed a trick by not playing the octopuses a selection of bangin' tunes imo

as an octopus rights advocate. I'd like to do a few tests on the MDMA they are using, just make sure it is up to lab quality standards!

PLUR.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, 24 January 2018 16:47 (seven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha bizarro

https://www.sciencealert.com/ev-nautilus-davidson-seamount-grimpoteuthis-dumbo-octopus-caught-on-camera

what a cutie

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/nega7b/swarm-of-1000-octopuses-found-at-bottom-of-the-ocean-davidson-seamount?fbclid=IwAR0cRZhzRmHL9EPodnoL-1CZRyKjgsGXMnd4KN9BMozpeXDtRm0pFMI5rj4&utm_source=mbfb

<3 all this baby cthulhus

I watch cooking shows all the time, perhaps masochistically as a vegan, but I don't mind people meat being cooked. But octopus (and veal) produces a sense of distaste that I never had before.

I mean, I'm used to meat, so other people ordering meat in a restaurant doesn't bother me. but someone ordering octopus bothers me. I guess noone's reactions make much sense.

(I still don't say anything)

"people meat" doesn't bother you??

It's less insulting than "meatbag"

https://youtu.be/7tScAyNaRdQ

ah fuck it, I don't know how to embed these things. not octopus related, just a "people meat" short film.

Just remove the "s" from "https". Yes, it means its not secure, but that's how ILX rolls.

Cheers!

http://youtu.be/7tScAyNaRdQ

o fuck

from this thread i ended up at the end of the internet and learning about the argonaut or paper nautilus, which is not a nautilus but apparently a back-evolution of octopus and it is really interesting. i've never seen one of those shells before either, or i just assumed it was a type of proper nautilus?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argonaut_(animal)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-4JYPXPSrk

o fuck

you can't embed shortened urls

d'awwwww look at this squirmy li'l cutie!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAmTTCV7GyY

A tourist in Australia has gone viral after posting a video of themself holding a blue-ringed octopus. But it hasn’t gone viral just because the animal is beautiful. The blue-ringed octopus is one of the most venomous creatures in Australia and the unnamed tourist is lucky to be alive.

The chilling video, which appears to have been originally posted to TikTok, found its way to Reddit over the weekend where Australians started to point out just how dangerous it was to handle a blue-ringed octopus. Commenters shared their own stories about the animal, which reportedly carries enough venom to kill 26 full grown adults in a span of minutes.

The venom of the blue-ringed octopus, which contains the neurotoxin tetrodotoxin, causes paralysis and the sting is so small that most people have no idea that they’ve been poisoned until it’s too late.

To make things even more horrifying, there’s no anti-venom available for the blue-ringed octopus. The only known treatment is to massage the victim’s heart until the venom works its way throughout a person’s body in a matter of hours.

One person on Reddit even told the story of an unnamed victim who had been paralyzed on the beach with their eyes open while facing the sun.

“They survived, but nobody had really thought about the fact they’d been staring up into full midday sunlight for a couple of hours throughout the process with their eyes wide open, pupils fully dilated,” the Redditer said. “Total paralysis, easy for the first-aiders to not think to cover their eyes. Caused irreversible damage. They permanently lost their vision.”

Australia gets a bad rap for having dangerous animals, but most locals believe that the fear is overblown. It’s not overblown when it comes to the blue-ringed octopus though. If you see one in the water, let it be.

Got to be an American, no?

This is how an octopus changes shades and textures to blend in with its environment pic.twitter.com/xQAV6JhZy7

— How Things Work (@ThingsCutInHaIf) February 9, 2019

cor

https://66.media.tumblr.com/5f34c82ea6e1d2e40593205ef6fd1a4c/tumblr_puean2iiZh1qm9k25o1_1280.jpg

hello bubbeleh

https://trailersfromhell.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/sh-e1483663767465.jpg

Best movie title ever. Should be scored by Eek! A Mouse.

If only the movie lived up to the title.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MyMKSLQTE_k/UAQmCs75IJI/AAAAAAABLIM/SddZwzU8xoc/s1600/MysteriousIsland29%2B%252862%2529.jpg

The Mysterious Island (1929)

hello im having the best day ever bc i just found out this shiny holographic octopus exists pic.twitter.com/UC9Vw0MrdP

— stacie 🍵 REOPENING COMMS 7/15 (@CthulhuLel) July 7, 2019

(yes, i know it's a cuttlefish; it can't help it)

https://www.instagram.com/p/B0BgUWLD2no/?igshid=2c6upi7w48yz

Good trilobite disguise.

It's apparently pretending to be the venomous flatfish, see more of its impersonations here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wos8kouz810

Would not mind being reincarnated as an octopus

they are SO **cking badass it's ridiculous

https://scontent.fphl1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/67160480_2417718071615858_2978170652789309440_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&_nc_oc=AQlI0ssLGizzKW_1_ohiaxMCxLl1RAzWujO6sJFPydmAgp7jQSAZVRU2fDxoNsRLAlY&_nc_ht=scontent.fphl1-1.fna&oh=435df60a3ec5b2d7af59f1fc21fa4fef&oe=5DA26C81
A perfectly cromulent Criterion Collection spine # 1000.

Mimic Octopus/Sanders 2020

Are we ready for a pride octopus?

https://youtu.be/QJcXMPJ9XN8

you’re damn right i am

werktopus

That's what she said.

I apologize for besmirching this pure thread with such an obvious, poorly formed "joke."

you're among colleagues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp8wJwERqRw

Amazing to watch

wow

dang

beautiful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vKCLJZbytU

https://www.sciencealert.com/watch-the-mesmerising-colour-shifts-of-a-sleeping-octopus

holy shit

that show looks neat

streamable online now: https://www.pbs.org/video/octopus-making-contact-y8dyan/

Hell yes.

🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙
🐙 ❤️❤️ ❤️❤️ 🐙
🐙 ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ 🐙
🐙 #WorldOctopusDay 🐙
🐙 ❤️ ❤️ 🐙
🐙 ❤️ ❤️ 🐙
🐙 ❤️ 🐙
🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙

— 🦑 Monsterey Boo Ascaryum 🎃 (@MontereyAq) October 8, 2019

https://laughingsquid.com/octopus-trades-cup-for-shell/

don’t mess with the octopus 👊 pic.twitter.com/ovQIa52trW

— dave ❄️ 🥕 (@davemacladd) October 9, 2019

APS, that is so goddamn beautiful it deserves an embed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTJbdy097m0

<3

A handful of octopi feeding on a whale carcass 3km deep, streaming live now from the Nautilus expedition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwm3-xKyIzE

https://media.nature.com/w1172/magazine-assets/d41586-019-03390-x/d41586-019-03390-x_17355168.jpg

If the Residents were octopusses

https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2013/10/39714.jpg?quality=45&resize=620,413

https://media.nature.com/w800/magazine-assets/d41586-019-03390-x/d41586-019-03390-x_17350538.jpg
it's party time!

Meet the dumbo octopus 🐙 just one of the creatures revealed by the Schmidt Ocean Institute during an exploration of the dark, uncharted waters more than a mile below the surface in the Coral Sea off Australia’s east coast https://t.co/RGMbQ2poTn pic.twitter.com/YZVpgOTU93

— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 26, 2020

Beautiful

well well well

Well, I watched "My Octopus Teacher" on netflix: a flawed but moving documentary about a straight man who has a lifechanging erotic relationship with a female octopus. I cried, then read out loud to my friends the entirety of @amiasrinivasan's 2017 essay (https://t.co/ILun9KMlxz) pic.twitter.com/Azefm8xJjU

— Sophie Lewis (@reproutopia) September 20, 2020

lol, that film is dumb insofar as he befriends an octopus and then doesn’t interfere with a shark attacking it but then feels it’s appropriate to bring it food to heal and then bring his son to meet the octopus and that’s at the halfway mark of the film. narrator says “that’s when my relationship with my teacher deepened” and i peaced out. i’m as avidly pro-cephalopod as the next person but projection on that level is just gross. yes, the photography is spectacular. it’s good oceanography film porn but no, it's not erotic.

actually, i just read that whole tweet thread and i guess lewis is right on!

Some of the reactions to that fun thread..

Bernie would fuck an octopus

is it possible to have a non-erotic relationship with an octopus? or, because octopuses are by nature boundary-negating (in your reading) which is the essence of eros (in your reading), does that make them inherently erotic, meaning all relationships with octopuses are erotic?

— Elizabeth Bruenig (@ebruenig) September 21, 2020

I have to say, I never much care to hear anything from Elizabeth Bruenig and this goes double for this.

It's an illustration of democratic socialism Vs communism, with an octopus.

I have no intention of watching it but that LRB piece linked is classic and all the tradcaths/bores replying to that thread going “uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” are only telling on themselves.

Wild octopus reaches out to touch his human best friend whenever she visits 🐙💙 pic.twitter.com/VDniOcE1Bi

— The Dodo (@dodo) October 17, 2020

v good boy imo

d’awwww

that's about how long "my octopus teacher" should have been

Aw, I liked it, it was kind of like an octopus "Charlotte's Web."

Okay I know this isn't the right thread for it but I can't help falling in love with the banded piglet squid

https://azure.wgp-cdn.co.uk/app-practicalfishkeeping/news/4d04db986832b.jpg

it says no squid allowed right there in the thread title ffs

Yes and I am protesting that octonormative bigotry

loving it

pic.twitter.com/Q1FcXMd2SV

— Earth Aquatic (@earthaquatic) March 24, 2021

you had me there for a second

I thought it was real :(

octopus: come at me bro
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-56612257

https://i.redd.it/py9vqx759wg41.jpg

It was at this moment that he knew he fucked up. pic.twitter.com/OM4cYwYLKE

— Kevin (@forensictoxguy) August 21, 2021

that moment just before the lethal neurotoxins from the blue ringed octopus paralyze your muscles and you can't breathe any more!

I have had a very similar experience - "oh wow, look, I think that is a tiny octopus! how magical, never seen one in a rock pool before"
*BING, dozens of blue rings light up on its skin*
"oh shit I am leaving now"

in the thread it diverges into other dangerous Antipodean creatures like the "murder-bird" and on reflection I very much like this colourful little octopus.

if i were australian i would never leave the house

An octopus changing colors in her sleep might be an indication she's dreaming. pic.twitter.com/vkZOLXWPkb

— Figen (@TheFigen) July 24, 2022

gorgeous

YES.

Incidentally: https://www.atlasobscura.com/experiences/cephalopods-online-course

what beauty! but that's gotta be perilous in the wild, surely? if protective camouflage is one of the main objectives/benefits of this ability then flashing like a beacon while you're unconscious seems counterproductive. maybe there has to be a baseline comfort level or established lack of nearby predators before a sleeping octopus relaxes to that degree. damn they are cool.

👑🐙🐙🐙👑

I really wonder what she is dreaming about.

Like, does an octopus having a pleasant dream look different from an octopus having a nightmare?

cat, I'd expect that most most sleeping octopuses aren't out in the open but in secure(?) dens where color flashing isn't such a giveaway.

I really wonder what she is dreaming about.

japanese researchers are way ahead of you on this one (nsfw)

yeah Leee, that makes sense. happy little octopi/octopuses/octopodes, all cozy in their dens, dreaming dreamy octopus dreams.

*ringo starr voice*

YES.

Incidentally: https://www.atlasobscura.com/experiences/cephalopods-online-course

My family and I did the last session of this course because my 8-year-old is a squid fanatic, and it was a very worthwhile and recommendable experience.

*ringo starr voice*

perfect

cross-posted from Weird Animals thread:

More evidence (i.e. RNA editing) that cephalopods are aliens: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/curiouser-and-curiouser-octopuss-evolution-is-even-stranger-than-thought/

― Antifa Lockhart (Leee), Wednesday, September 14, 2022 9:38 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

shameless BG bait:

Empathic octopus usually goes nearshore to receive the caresses of children before returning offshore (Sardinia, Italy) pic.twitter.com/Lqth1vaoG0

— Gabriele Corno (@Gabriele_Corno) September 19, 2022

a+ octopus, would caress

wild

Yes this a squid fight me:

This is a piglet squid and it is real.

📸: (Cabrillo Marine Aquarium/Gary Florin) pic.twitter.com/pyf2SnvUh1

— Erin Biba (@erinbiba) July 26, 2021

https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/travel/2022/09/lindblad-expeditions-national-geographic-to-explore-kimberley-and-beyond/

pouring one out for the other cephalopod thread, RIP to a real one
even more squiddities and sepiidies of the schooling class - the other cephalopod thread

Doh, I didn't see that thread! Will bookmark it now!

I was a bit tongue in cheek there, I don't think the cephalopod ILX traffic is so intense that we need two threads!

excuse me this is a squid-exclusionary space by design, we absolutely do need two cephalopod threads

https://pbfcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/PBF078-Nautical_Awards.jpg

splitter

Octopuses don't have tentacles, they have arms!

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/science/octopus-throwing-silt.html

https://vp.nyt.com/video/2022/11/08/104105_1_09tb-angry-octopus-silt02_wg_720p.mp4

exasperation can lead to the deployment of projectiles as a potential manner of cephalopod conflict resolution

we shd quit eating these super-smart aliens imo

An Octopus riding an Eel to avoid being eaten. pic.twitter.com/3zH4GWaA0i

— Weird and Terrifying (@weirdterrifying) December 23, 2022

I have in almost everything. But takoyaki tho.

If you mute the twee music, this is absolutely enchanting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydrc489USbM