Even the peaceful octopus knows that sometimes you have to do battle.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Even the peaceful octopus knows that sometimes you have to do battle.
You might want to get snacks and fluff your pillow now, because all you get to do today is be mesmerized by a very long BBC Earth video. Lots of cephalopods in here, as well as other exotic sea creatures!
A giant squid washed ashore in Japan. Surprisingly, it was still alive!
VIDEO: Giant squid washes ashore alive in Japan.
A giant squid 3.35 metres in length has been found alive on a shore in western Japan.
Giant squid live in the deep sea, and is unusual for one to be washed ashore alive. The squid has now been transported to an aquarium pic.twitter.com/FGdc23MBjI— AFP News Agency (@AFP) April 22, 2022
That looks like a sick squid to me — alive, but barely. I’m seeing conflicting reports that it’s already died, or that it’s living in an aquarium, or that it was airlifted to a secret kaiju laboratory on a remote volcanic island in the Pacific.
The Kraken is dead!
But fear not, for he shall rise again on the third day, and lo, the rampaging will be awesome.
(Actually, this is a giant squid washed up on a beach in South Africa, in 2020, so the resurrection is a bit belated. But then, risen gods always seem to be tardy. Be patient, and send money to his prophets while waiting.)
Last year, NASA launched an elite team of baby squid into space in a scientific experiment on the development of symbiotic interactions. These brave innocents went forth to advance our scientific understanding.
Yet now their fate is unclear. The summary of the experiment is now sprinkled with statements that “Data is either unavailable, restricted, or under review.” I need to know what happened. Perhaps, under conditions of weightlessness and intense radiation, the cephalopods quickly grew to monstrous size, melded with the computer equipment on board, and have been mimicking human communications ever since, and all the resupply missions since have been redirected to the goal of feeding the giant space squid colony? It could have happened.
Sorry, astronauts. You’ve all been squid chow for the past year.
Maybe it doesn’t look like much, and maybe it’s tiny at only 1.5cm long, but this is a 522 million year old cephalopod shell, found in Newfoundland.
To be fair, the investigators are cautious, only tentatively calling it a cephalopod…but it’s an oval shell with a siphuncle. None of the squishy bits are preserved, unfortunately, but it’s enough to suggest that this is a cephalopod, especially since it’s at about the right time period predicted.
One sad thing about it is that we still feel a need to issue a disclaimer when commenting on it.
“Cephalopods are really different from other mollusks,” Vecchione said. Still, “we do know that they’re mollusks, they’re not from outer space like some people have said.”
Yeah, those assholes from the Panspermia Mafia, Wickramasinghe etc., have really tainted the public perception of cephalopods.
Wow. This is a lovely and informative poster.
It’s available as a poster, or a coffee mug, or even as a beach blanket! You know, in case you really wanted to know what superorder of cephalopods was dragging you into the sea.
I don’t think it will grow in my garden.
Todd Bretl
You just know this beauty spent hours on her makeup, fussed over her perfect pose, waited for the best light, and then had her photographer take a whole series of photos that were then subtly tweaked in Photoshop. You don’t get this kind of flawless loveliness any other way.
