Mar 30 2012

Friday Cephalopod: They’re evolving wings!

Categories:

Forget that goofy crocoduck. I want a cephalogull.

Actually, this isn’t an octopus growing bird wings. I have a whole series of violent photos of the event — it’s a very cunning octopus that oozed up to the Ogden Point breakwater in Victoria, BC, reached up silently with it’s suckered arms, and dragged a seagull down to a watery doom, and a tasty fowl dinner. If you were eating nothing but crab every day you might want to try something different too.

Also, take that, bird fans!

(Also on Sb)

This post has no tag

37 comments

Skip to comment form ↓

1

fastlane

30 March 2012 at 9:44 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Your ‘also on SB’ link points back to here. You need a better code monkey. =P
2

quoderatdemonstrandum

30 March 2012 at 9:46 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

what a relief! For a minute there I thought the seagull was eating the octopus.

Of course that was a silly thought, brilliant cephalopods are way too smart for stupid birds.
3

PZ Myers

30 March 2012 at 9:46 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Nope, I need slower readers. I post to both sites with a blank url, get the address from each, and update the two posts. If you click within a minute of me posting the crossposted articles, you’ll catch them before the update.
4

kevinalexander

30 March 2012 at 9:46 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

What species is that?

Gullophagous sniiki?
5

Glen Davidson

30 March 2012 at 9:54 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Anti-flyday.

Glen Davidson
6

chigau (違う)

30 March 2012 at 9:57 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I would like to see the series of violent photos.
7

Dhorvath, OM

30 March 2012 at 10:05 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I, ah, have spent time at Ogden point and nearby, it being in my backyard so to speak. Now I am doubly sure that I won’t be swimming off the island anytime soon.
8

consciousness razor

30 March 2012 at 10:07 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

If you were eating nothing but crab every day you might want to try something different too.

Maybe it should try the calamari next time. That’s probably much tastier than seagull.
9

FilthyHuman

30 March 2012 at 10:13 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

How nice for that octopus to fatten itself up so it will be nice and juicy on my dinner plate.
10

FilthyHuman

30 March 2012 at 10:24 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

A bit of a derail.
Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, rebuffed suggestions by a top House Republican that American generals were not being truthful about Pentagon spending needs.

You know, I’m not sure what to think here. Other then you know your budget is completely out of whack when even the Pentagon is saying “Um… we really, REALLY don’t need this much money. Go use it somewhere else important.”
11

lexie

30 March 2012 at 10:25 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I don’t think cephalogulls would look as good on a tie
12

Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort

30 March 2012 at 10:33 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

@Filthy Human:

Post derails on TET! There are no derails there :D Plus we’re all friendly!
13

FilthyHuman

30 March 2012 at 10:55 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

@Katherine
#12
That the “Episode *some large roman numeral” threads?
14

mjmiller

30 March 2012 at 10:57 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

It Came From Beneath the Sea!
15

grantcomeau

30 March 2012 at 11:08 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

“I have a whole series of violent photos of the event ”

Stop teasing.
16

'Tis Himself, OM

30 March 2012 at 11:21 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I have a whole series of violent photos of the event

Why am I not surprised that PZ has gull snuff porn.
17

alexandradeufel

30 March 2012 at 11:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Love the “oozed up”! Beautifully descriptive :)
18

cag

30 March 2012 at 12:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Tastes like chicken.
19

wmdon

30 March 2012 at 12:46 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Yay! I feel special!

(I sent PZ the photos.)
20

roggg

30 March 2012 at 12:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I dont see a whole series of violent photos. Would like to see a whole series of violent photos…
21

chigau (違う)

30 March 2012 at 1:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

wmdon
You are special!! Yes, you are!!
-now post the photos somewhere :) (please)
22

patrickgranvold

30 March 2012 at 1:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Joining the chorus requesting violent photo series!
23

TonyJ

30 March 2012 at 2:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Awesome. I hate birds. I’ve never had an octopus crap on my car right after I washed and waxed it.
24

A. R

30 March 2012 at 3:13 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Is there nothing that they cannot do? Fear them! Mammals are next!
25

cultureclash

30 March 2012 at 3:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Hey when you think about it what you have here is an octopus eating a dinosaur…
Which is even cooler.

Also want to see the rest of the violent photos and also to stop thinking that they should be photos of violence and not violent photos which sound like the monster book of monsters… But I can’t see that happening any time soon.
26

The Sailor

30 March 2012 at 4:49 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

@ Katherine “Plus we’re all friendly!”

I’m not! [/Python]
+++++++++++++++
I’m a little surprised the octopus was so obvious, I would have thought he would have lured the seagull in by a more devious method.

And “tastes like chicken” FTW!
27

WithinThisMind

30 March 2012 at 5:01 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

And my first thought was ‘what CR do you suppose it would be?’
28

ironflange

30 March 2012 at 6:03 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Gee, that’s awful, Victoria has so few seagulls to spare.
29

SallyStrange: bottom-feeding, work-shy peasant

30 March 2012 at 6:19 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

VIOLENT PHOTOS! VIOLENT PHOTOS!
30

Markita Lynda—it's Spring after the Winter that wasn't

30 March 2012 at 7:48 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Those look like pigeon wings. Maybe it’s a juvenile gull?
31

Menyambal -- damned dirty ape

30 March 2012 at 11:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Yeah, I thought the wings look like pigeon, too. Both in shape and color.
32

The Sailor

30 March 2012 at 11:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Markita Lynda, the juvenile delinquent just gulled you into believing that.
33

chigau (違う)

30 March 2012 at 11:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

See. That’s why we need a series of ~~violent~~ photos.
For identification purposes.
For Science!
34

Menyambal -- damned dirty ape

30 March 2012 at 11:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

After a bit of rooting around the ‘Net, I’ll now say the wings look like a gull, rather than a pigeon. But, as Markita Lynda says, probably a juvenile.

I could find no images that weren’t copied from here, but found an old newspaper account of someone watching an octopus catching a gull.
35

Oleander Tea, Keeper of A Little Knowledge

31 March 2012 at 7:11 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

First Otto the Octopus juggling hermit crabs and now this unnamed-by-humans octopus getting supper by stealth. I’m starting to really be impressed with those sea beasties.

I’m also re-thinking my snorkeling hobby. Today small birds, tomorrow tall girls.
36

jahigginbotham

31 March 2012 at 4:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

is this the series of pictures?
37

brix1234

26 May 2012 at 9:51 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

The octopus is cool! Do you have a video of the octopus catching the bird? I didn’t know that they can do that! They rock! :)

“Brix” for pot catalytique