The octopus (pron.: /ËÉktÉpÊs/ or pron.: /ËÉktÉpÉs/; plural: octopuses, octopi, or octopodes; see below) is a cephalopod mollusc of the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms and, like other cephalopods, they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms. Octopuses have no internal or external skeleton (although some species have a vestigial remnant of a shell inside their mantles), allowing them to squeeze through tight places. Octopuses are among the most intelligent and behaviorally flexible of all invertebrates.
After UAVs inspired by hawks, robotic stability control spun from leaping lizards, wall climbing derived from geckos or the swimming artificial jellyfish made from rat cells, in yet another remarkable feat of robotics which draws inspiration from nature scientists at Harvard University have created a robot which mixes the blending capabilities of a squid with the locomotion [...]
Off the coast of Sulawesi in Indonesia, dwells the Thaumoctopus mimicus commonly refered to as the mimic octopus, a remarkable animal capable of changing its shape and size to take the form of a jellyfish, a lion fish or even a crab or shrimp, among many other, for both protection against predators and as a shrewd [...]
Giving birth is definitely not something you see everyday, but an octopus giving birth – that’s something you may never see. However, thanks to the Steinhart Aquarium at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, you get a chance to see just that: a species of Caribbean Octopus vulgaris giving birth. They took the [...]
Someone’s thrash is another one’s treasure – this old saying has an entirely different meaning for an octopus. The little guy found a beer bottle on the seafloor, and it’s just big enough that it can squeeze in and out – though why you would want to come out of a beer bottle after you [...]
Boy, you just can’t have enough octopus, that’s for sure – they’re really amazing creatures, that often surprise us. Now, a venomous octopus living in the frozen waters of Antarctica is definitely awesome, but how is this useful? Well, according to Bryan Fry, of the University of Melbourne, it is. He and his team have [...]
The mimic octopus, Thaumoctopus mimicus is a species of octopus that grows up to 60 cm (2 feet) in length and is naturally colored with brown and white stripes and spots. So what’s so special about it? The mimic octopus can literally mimic the physical appearance and movement of fifteen different species, that we know of [...]
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) published some quite awesome pictures showing that Antarctica isn’t the lifeless frozen wasteland most people believe it to be; ice fish, octopus, sea pigs, giant sea spiders, rare rays and gorgeous basket stars all thrive in the extreme temperatures in Antarctica’s waters. Well, thrive is perhaps a too strong word, [...]
Fri, Aug 17, 2012
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