Making babies

January 7th, 2013 by PZ Myers

The first bit of this video is an opalescent squid filling her egg sac; then the cool and special part is how many squid mothers carefully insert their sac into a community cluster. Oh, man, they’re just lovely.

Opalescent Squid Egg Laying from Damian Davalos on Vimeo.

Posted in Cephalopods, Organisms | 15 comments

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15 comments on this post.

  1. chigau (無味ない):

    January 7th, 2013 at 4:39 pm

    Now I want to see them hatch.

  2. WMDKitty (Always growing and learning):

    January 7th, 2013 at 5:12 pm

    That was awesome.

  3. damiand:

    January 7th, 2013 at 5:23 pm

    Wow, thank you for featuring this on Pharyngula! I’m a fan and never expected to see my stuff here. Cheers!

  4. Ogvorbis: Broken and feeling worthless:

    January 7th, 2013 at 5:24 pm

    That’s beautiful.

    And I love the way, when she is filling the egg sack, it looks like she is giving the camera the stink-eye. Sort of, “Why are you filming this?”

  5. chigau (無味ない):

    January 7th, 2013 at 5:27 pm

    Very nice work, damiand.

  6. SC (Salty Current), OM:

    January 7th, 2013 at 5:29 pm

    Oh, man, they’re just lovely.

    They really are. And what a nicely done video.

  7. Hekuni Cat, MQG:

    January 7th, 2013 at 5:51 pm

    Simply wonderful.

  8. cm's changeable moniker:

    January 7th, 2013 at 6:27 pm

    It is all kinds of awesome, but I kind of expected something at the end to go “ooh, squid egg sacs, NYOM”.

    Do they really just leave them there? That’s brave.

  9. catlover:

    January 7th, 2013 at 6:43 pm

    That’s really pretty neat! I loved the music.
    I don’t know much about squid and was
    surprised at the large size of her eyes.
    I, too, wonder how any of the little ones ever
    survive predator attacks. Those egg sacs look
    awfully defenseless.

  10. Taslima Nasreen:

    January 7th, 2013 at 6:55 pm

    Wow, So beautiful!

  11. jnorris:

    January 7th, 2013 at 7:46 pm

    I too wonder how the community hatchery is protected. It looks to vulnerable. Also, in the first part of the film, is the egg sack in among the tentacles?

  12. jstackpo:

    January 7th, 2013 at 8:30 pm

    How does mom attach the egg-sack to the twig (or whatever that stick-like item is)?

  13. Giliell, professional cynic:

    January 8th, 2013 at 7:43 am

    I guess there’s no squid equivalence to “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

  14. zan:

    January 10th, 2013 at 12:54 pm

    Why do some types of squid pile their egg sacs together? It seems like a great way to let predators find all the eggs in one place to eat them all.

  15. Scott McGreal:

    January 13th, 2013 at 5:14 am

    Wow, that was truly amazing, I never had any idea that squid did this communal egg sac thing. I wonder what the purpose of it is?