Comments

  1. Dave Hone says

    I know the Pacific ones get big, but how close is the diver? Is that a question of perspective, or is it really a 3 or 4 beastie (mantle + 1 tentacle)?

  2. hans says

    It’s a 4.5 meter ‘pussy. Besides, you can clearly see that at least one tentacle goes *behind* the diver.

  3. Mena says

    I don’t anthropomorphize often but (s)he looks grumpy. After reading the previous comments I hate to wonder why! :^O

  4. Fernando Magyar says

    The diver is a “he”? How can any of you be so certain about the sex of the diver, not that it really matters ;-)

  5. SEF says

    Hey, PZ! If Cephalopodmas is the solstice (whether for cultish reasons or more rational ones), then when is its year zero and is the counting system 8 or 10? These questions need to be answered so that people can celebrate the “Big’un” in anniversary terms.

  6. brightmoon says

    wow i hope that octo didnt get PO’d at that diver ….those beaks look like they take a good sized chunk

  7. eric says

    Great picture. Can I be a total German grammar nerd and point out that your caption should be “ein Pazifischer Riesenoktopus”? As with many things in life, context is crucial.

  8. JohnnieCanuck says

    Well BabelFish wasn’t much help in determining the diver’s sex. I got:

    Courageously: One of the two biologists dares itself completely near to a Pacific Riesenoktopus near (4.50 meters; Queen Charlotte sound, Vancouver Iceland, British Columbia, Canada)

    ‘Riesen’ by itself translated as ‘giant’. Divers here (Georgia Strait) have often tamed them to take food. Myself, I’d worry about the possibility that ‘all gone’ might not be easily communicated. That can be the case with bears, for example.

  9. eric says

    Courageously: One of the two biologists dares itself completely near

    That should be “Courageous: One of the two biologists ventures quite near”, and that second “near” from BabelFish should go. “Riesenoktopus” does indeed mean giant octopus.