This video gives sort of an overview of cephalopod intelligence in the way it uses camouflage and its resourcefulness. It's a little long, but it describes that video of the cuttlefish changing colors that we've seen a bunch of times in a really detailed way.
You might want to start at 3:20 here. This video shows how scientists are attempting to assess just how intelligent octopuses really are.
Depicted here is the brain of an octopus. Notice that each arm possesses a part of the octopus' brain.
Discovery Channel: Looking For the Giant Squid: First Video of a Giant Squid: Discovery Channel: Via Deep Sea News: Sperm Whale: Shallow Water Squid Mating: Nudibranchs & Scorpionfish Flourescing: Bermuda Bioluminescence:
Hudson Canyon Dumbo Octopus: What the Vampire Squid Really Eats: Deep Sea Octopodes:
All Octopodes have eight arms, three hearts, and jellylike bodies with no internal skeleton. Deep sea octopodes oftentimes also have larger, more well-developed eyes and even bioluminescent features. Octopodes use the sit-and-wait technique to prey on their food (crustaceans, planktons, and fish). The bottom of a Glowing Sucker Octopus (Stauroteuthis)
Above is a video of the citrate octopus, named after the hair like structure called "cirri" on its body that aids it in the capture of food. It is an example of a fossil octopus.
Little is known about how deep sea octopuses reproduce but it is hypothesized that after mating, the female octopus will store the sperm until the egg is fertilized. Then the female will lay a relatively small cluster of large eggs.
Below is a video of the Bathypolypus articus hatching. In the video the pressure in the egg pushes out the bottom of the shell, the hatchling will then free himself and emerge as a fully functioning octopus!
To the left is the Dumbo Octopus , or the Grimpoteuthis Octopus. It moves by using his ear like fins and arms and swims from 400 meters to as much as 4,800 meters below the ocean .
The deep-sea hydrothermal vent octopus was recently discovered near Antarctica at around 2,394 meters below sea level. Scientists have hypothesized that since there is no light at the bottom of the sea, these octopodes don't need to camoflauge.
This unidentified purple octopus is one of 11 potentially new species found during a deep sea expedition of up to 3,000 meters of Canda's Atlantic Coast. References:
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/animals/invertebrates-animals/octopus-and-squid/octopus_giant_kills_shark/http://www.tonmo.com/science/public/deepseacephs.php
http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=60
http://tolweb.org/tree/home.pages/searchresults.html?cx=009557456284541951685%3A50nf_5tpvuq&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=octopus&sa=Search
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/07/photogalleries/100727-science-new-species-canada-deep-sea-newfoundland-pictures/
Flamboyant Cuttlefish (Metasepia Pfefferi)in Kapalai island sabah by underwaterstudios (malaysianunderwater.com)
Octopus Walks on Land at Marine Reserve: Deep Sea News: You Tube:
Wired.com Chambered Nautilus:
MBARI: Humboldt Squid Hunting:
Cuttlefish: Kings of Camouflage:
Humboldt Squid National Geographic:
MBARI: Anthology of Deep Sea Squids:
Jumbo Squid: MBARI: New Scientist:
Chambered Nautilus Feeding: California Academy of Sciences:
Blue Ringed & Mimic Octopodes:
Mimic Octopus:
Octopus Camouflage:
Octopus Steals Camera:
Search and Destroy: Whales of Tohora:
Smithsonian Ocean Portal:
Quest for the Giant Squid
Cirrate Octopod
Sperm Whale Diving:
MBARI Squid Encounter:
Flying with Squid from Casey Dunn on Vimeo.
The Indonesian Mimic Octopus, Thaumoctopus mimicus. This fascinating creature was discovered in 1998 off the coast of Sulawesi in Indonesia, the mimic octopus is the first known species to take on the characteristics of multiple species. This octopus is able to copy the physical likeness and movement of more than fifteen different species, including sea snakes, lionfish, flatfish, brittle stars, giant crabs, sea shells, stingrays, jellyfish, sea anemones, and mantis shrimp. This animal is so intelligent that it is able to discern which dangerous sea creature to impersonate that will present the greatest threat to its current possible predator. For example, scientists observed that when the octopus was attacked by territorial damselfishes, it mimicked the banded sea snake, a known predator of damselfishes.
California Oarfish:
Why The Ocean?: Introducing Mission Aquarius: Blue Tube Promo Trailer: Tank Bangers:
Shrimp vomits bioluminescent material to distract predator while it escapes. This is a common tactic from smaller bioluminescent producing organisms as a defense strategy.
The Anglerfish uses bioluminescence to attract prey. The prey is attracted to the light, created by bacteria in the bulb, giving the Anglerfish the opportunity to strike its prey at a close distance.
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| barreleye (Macropinna microstoma) notice the transparent head. |
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| Bioluminescent squid |
For more information about bioluminescence and the deep sea, check out these sites and articles:
www.seasky.org/deep-sea/biolumiscence.html
www.marinebio.org/oceans/deep/
www.press.uchicago.edu/books/nouvian/index.html
www.ocean.si.edu/ocean-videos/encounters-bioluminescent-creatures Squid that live close to the surface are known to use ink in order to evade and/or confuse a predator. But Stephanie Bush, a marine biologist, was extremely interested when she discovered that deep-sea squid actually utilize ink too – a function that seems to be completely useless for creatures living in total darkness (their predators can’t see them anyway). According to Bush and her colleagues, deep-sea octopi have evolved away from using ink, but for some reason, squid have not. No one is exactly sure why this is, but many hypotheses have been suggested by Bush and her contemporaries. Some think that animal eyes down in the dark are much stronger than ours, and therefore, can see creatures swimming around them, in which case the ink would be helpful. It is also possible that the ink masks chemicals in the water that allow predators to track the squid, or chemicals in the ink deter the predator. Perhaps the ink instead masks the bioluminescent trail that a swimming squid leaves in the water as it touches tiny organisms. Maybe some species need the ink if they travel to lighter water sometimes for certain types of food. There are many possibilities relating to deep-sea squids motives for keeping around their ink, and Bush’s study filming the different squid inkings is trying to figure out exactly which one is correct.* Scientists have discovered various deep sea squids throughout their research. Some of the various deep sea squids are the Humboldt squid, the Black-eyed squid and the piglet squid. These squids not only vary in name but also in swimming methods which affect their hunting methods. The Humboldt squid, fast-moving, hunt fish or shrimp; therefore, they are considered active predator. On the other hand, the Black-eyed squid sit and wait for their prey.** Nonetheless, even with all the information gathered on the deep sea squid there are yet some unknown species being discovered. In May of 2001 MBARI’s vehicle Tiburon (Shark in Spanish, ironically) had an encounter with this squid. As you can see even with all the research being done there is still much more to learn about this incredible deep sea specie. There’s been a lot of progress done, now lets invest more time in the darkest corners of the ocean.***
*http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/science/profiles/bush_0704.php
** http://www.mbari.org/news/homepage/2010/youtube-squids.html
*** http://www.mbari.org/news/news_releases/2001/dec21_clague/dec21_clague.html
