Enteroctopus dofleini
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
Friday Cephalopod: Say hello to my little friend
Enteroctopus dofleini
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
We should all have friends like that. Yay, Friday! (even though I’m at home sick today)
I’m so jealous! I want to go diving with Cthulhu!
The ‘little friend’ is the one top-left. the big red one is the feind ;-)
So, is that what it’d look like if I weren’t snipped?
Goddamn Catholic parents!
Fell out of a tree?
Nah, it’s still in there. Don’t you see the foliage?
The diveress is photoshopped in.
(It’s part of the conspiracy, you see.)
Humboldt State University’s marine lab has a wall of fish tanks in the main hall and one of them usually contains one of these beasties. Local fishermen or people connected to the lab find small juveniles from time to time and take them to the lab. When an individual outgrows the public tank, it’s released back into the local bay and a new one, when available takes its place.
It’s pretty wild when one is “shedding.” The octopus writhes and wriggles and rubs it’s tentacles together until the top layer of skin in the suction cups sloughs off. The shed skin looks a bit like weird little jellyfish floating around in the water.
Wow – I’ve never seen such a huge octopus – except in very bad movies.
Diving Puget Sound? Probably not, as it looks like a wet suit (not a dry suit). Really cool to dive with those curious buggers in any case.
I would like to humbly submit members of the order Sepiida for the next friday cephalopod
That is all