I don’t have a link for this, but it was created by Kara Treibergs and Laurel Hiebert for the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology. And it is so true!
(Also on Sb)
There’s something really notable about this image. Most cartoons feature the octopus as the villain; this one has the cephalopod representing the good guys, the 99%, strangling the villainous mammal. It breaks the stereotype!
Is it weird that I identified with the mollusc and felt a little happy uplift when I saw that?
(Also on FtB)
Hey, I know the Elwha river! I think we stopped there on my honeymoon. Lovely place, the Olympic Peninsula. And getting even lovelier if they are ripping out unneeded dams and restoring the rivers. There’s something so satisfying about a timelapse of a dam being demolished.
Next, restore the watershed and the salmon runs. Whatever, I’ve got to find an opportunity to relax on the peninsula someday again, before I die.
(Also on Sb)
This is a level of disgusting a cat can only dream of achieving. hagfish defend themselves and hunt with slime. How do they do that? They wrap themselves around their prey and strangle them in clouds of goo. Awesome!
(Also on Sb)
Watch the cuttlefish stalking shrimp, cautiously advancing by walking on a couple of arms — it almost looks like a tetrapod for a few moments. And then, finally, the lightning-fast strike. Oh, man, I wish I had a retractable spear built into my face. There are so many occasions when that would come in handy.
(Also on Sb)
This is an article about cephalopods and eye evolution, but I have to confess at the beginning that the paper it describes isn’t all that interesting. I don’t want you to have excessive expectations! I wanted to say a few words about it, though, because it addresses a basic question I get all the time, and while I was at it, I thought I’d mention a few results that set the stage for future studies.
I’m often asked to resolve some confusion: the scientific literature claims that eyes evolved multiple times, but I keep saying that eyes show evidence of common origin. Who is right? Why are you lying to me, Myers? And the answer is that we’re both right.
