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We Love Cephalopods!

I caught an octopus one night when I was a kid. I wanted to try to keep it alive for the aquarium. I had it in a bucket in the car with a board over the top riding home with the whole family. Suddenly my mom screamed in shock and fear and I immediately guessed (correctly) that the octopus had got out of the bucket. Oh well it tasted good.
 
Navy Studying Squid Skin to Create New Camouflage Patterns

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011...in-create-new-camouflage-patterns/?test=faces

As an octopus, a squid, or a cuttlefish moves around a reef in the ocean, it instantly camouflages itself against the background. Known as cephalopods, these animals have the extraordinary ability to conceal themselves from predators by adjusting their skin to take on the colors, shapes and patterns of their local environment.

A research collaboration among three institutions is now trying to understand how they do it. In the process, the team hopes to find ways to develop materials for use by humans that emulate cephalopods' skills at camouflage and signaling.

"Our internal name for this project is ‘squid skin,' but it is really about fundamental research," said Naomi Halas, a materials scientist and nanotechnologist at Rice University in Houston, Texas. "Our deliverable is knowledge -- the basic discoveries that will allow us to make materials that are observant, adaptive, and responsive to their environment."

<SNIP>
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BenBurch said:
In another thread here, it was found out that I had fallen for what might be an urban legend;

http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=24;t=001369;p=1

And I'd really be interested in learning if it really happened!
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I looked everywhere for the video once before and failed to find it, but I can say with almost certainty (possible false memories excluded) that I have seen the video of the octopus leaving its tank to feed in a different tank. It's possible I saw it in a college class rather than on TV or the Net. They set the camera up to find out what was happening to the animals in the other tank.
 
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Capsid said:
I could ask the JREFers favourite question. Evidence? But I looked it up and the cuttlefish (at least) does appear to be colour blind which is fascinating given their ability to camouflage in a colour environment.
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Consider a paradigm shift. Not all vision or all brains are necessarily akin to mammals or insects. I recently saw a program on the intelligence of cephalopods and they described the brain as being spread out over each tentacle. Perhaps we are wrong to think there is only one mechanism for consciousness. And while the eyes of this creature may not register color vision, it was suggested that there was some kind of intelligence involved in the animals' ability to mimic its environment. Perhaps it is aware including consciously, of visual stimuli by a mechanism besides an eye.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
Consider a paradigm shift. Not all vision or all brains are necessarily akin to mammals or insects. I recently saw a program on the intelligence of cephalopods and they described the brain as being spread out over each tentacle. Perhaps we are wrong to think there is only one mechanism for consciousness. And while the eyes of this creature may not register color vision, it was suggested that there was some kind of intelligence involved in the animals' ability to mimic its environment. Perhaps it is aware including consciously, of visual stimuli by a mechanism besides an eye.
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I wholeheartedly endorse this.

Sharks are an example of a lineage we used to think was dim because of their relatively small brains.
 
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