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Aussie Scientists Find Coconut-Carrying Octopus
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from an AP report: "Australian scientists have discovered an octopus in Indonesia that collects coconut shells for shelter — unusually sophisticated behavior that the researchers believe is the first evidence of tool use in an invertebrate animal. The scientists filmed the veined octopus, Amphioctopus marginatus, selecting halved coconut shells from the sea floor, emptying them out, carrying them under their bodies up to 65 feet (20 meters), and assembling two shells together to make a spherical hiding spot. ... 'I was gobsmacked,' said Finn, a research biologist at the museum who specializes in cephalopods. 'I mean, I've seen a lot of octopuses hiding in shells, but I've never seen one that grabs it up and jogs across the sea floor. I was trying hard not to laugh.'"
From the BBC.
My work here is dung.
Is it an African or a European octopus?
Capitalism: When it uses the carrot, it's called democracy. When it uses the stick, it's called fascism.
This is a temperate zone, the coconut's tropical.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Is Amphioctopus marginatus' use of a bamboo bicycle as a primitive generator.
These octopi were carrying the shells on their tippitty-toes and seemed to be dancing. To their amazement they found they were dancing to the tune of "I got a bubbly bunch of coconuts....dididi deedi dididi dee Here they are .. Big one Small One One as big as ..."
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I for one welcome our quasi-migratory cephalopod overlords. The African Swallow has been sacked.
But supposing *two* octopuses (octopi?) carried it together!
Do not disturb. Already disturbed. http://www.teaaddictedgeek.com
This will be news when they find an African or European swallow doing the same thing.
This post brought to you by your friendly neighborhood MBA.
hurt like the dickens and I felt like I was going to cry, laugh, and trow up all at the same time too!
Sig Follows: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
I thought it was understood that octopi have primate-level intelligence. Why is this so surprising?
Luckily for us, octopuses live underwater, so they won't have the chance to develop the use of fire, and are nonsocial and fairly short lived, so they won't have the chance to pass on knowledge from one to another.
Were it not for that, we would probably be fighting for our lives against the many-legged hordes of the deep.
I, for one, welcome our new fusion-powered cephalords.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
I think such a post would be better posted / discussed at a place like digg. Very little of the slashdot audience cares about octopuses and coconuts.
Octopuses and their relatives have been surprising researchers for quite a while. They can show some remarkable intelligence. Us vertebrates have competition. The squishy ones have brains too.
They have a partially-decentralized brain, which makes for some interesting potential multi-core sci-fi: Planet of the Squids kind of stuff. And if they ever learn to type, they'll be four times more productive than us, maybe even more if a suction-cup-friendly keyboard/mouse is invented :-)
Table-ized A.I.
That is so weird. You don't associate walking with an octopus, but that's exactly what it did... tuck the shell under it's body, and then scamper across the seabed using its tentacles like legs.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
'I mean, I've seen a lot of octopuses hiding in shells, but I've never seen one that grabs it up and jogs across the sea floor. I was trying hard not to laugh.'"
Mark my words.The octopus-coconut elevator will happen about 10 years after everyone stops laughing.
'I mean, I've seen a lot of octopuses hiding in shells, but I've never seen one that grabs it up and jogs across the sea floor. I was trying hard not to laugh.'"
Why would you try not to laugh? Afraid of hurting the octo's feelings?
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
It's The Professor, he's been reincarnated! Now he can finish that coconut-shell nuclear reactor that Gilligan kept breaking.
Table-ized A.I.
Even less of us give a fuck about your opinion.
Copulate with a donkey.
Funny thing is that split coconuts probably aren't too common unless people or animals split them.
This reminds me of the story I have been telling for years whenever someone asks me why I do not eat Octopus.
From Snopes
Though the story is not verified, directly, there is consensus that the story is possible and is even likely to have occurred.
Oh no, run for your lives! They're preparing the coconut cannon!
http://xkcd.com/520/
A European one, maybe.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Might I suggest this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf670orHKcA#t=23s
JAKARTA (OP) - Indonesian octopi have discovered a scientist in Australia that uses rubber flippers on its feet for propulsion in water - unusually sophisticated behavior that the researchers believe is the first evidence of intelligence in a vertebrate animal.
Look where all this talking got us, baby.
I for one welcome our undersea, coconut wielding, overlords.
There's been a few documentaries on the Discovery channel where they've not only mention how intelligent they were, but even suggested they might have emotions.
So it is trying to pretend it is a hermit crab.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Is it an African or a European octopus?
You've got two empty 'alves of an octopus and you're bangin' em together!
Bow-ties are cool.
You put the lime in the coconut and get octopus ceviche. The you feel better, etc, etc.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
He was using them to make the CLIP-CLOP sound effect for the new theater play his "School" is putting on. The Headless Sea Horse.
Inane Comments are Generously Disregarded
everyone knows squidward lives in a tikihead
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Who lives with a coconut under the sea...
You're laughing now. Just wait until Cthulhu returns.
I'a! I'a! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
You can't be allowed to say Octopi on slashdot without the inevitable reply from homo pedanticus. The correct english plural of Octopus is Octopusses. In the erroneous belief that Octopus derives from Latin, it is often pluralized as Octopi, but in fact it comes from the Greek, so the pluralization would be Octopodes, except that that would seem overly pedantic. Therefore the correct pluralization of Octopus for the pedantic and for others is Octopusses.
JAKARTA (OP) - Indonesian octopi have discovered a scientist in Australia that uses rubber flippers on its feet for propulsion in water - unusually sophisticated behavior that the researchers believe is the first evidence of intelligence in a vertebrate animal.
In SOVIET RUSSIA, Flippers wear YOU!
it's not a question of where he grips it...
Really? do I have to be the 1st to make the obligatory "I'm in your base, stealing your coconuts" reference? C'mon guys!
Stop talking while you are chewing your food.
-- Mother
Cory Doctorow talking about cloud computing makes as much sense as George W Bush talking about electrical engineering.
Pina coladas tonight!
YES! I knew when I saw the title of this article that all I had to do was scroll down and i'd see a reference to Cthulhu or Deep Ones!
http://nathanlindsell.blogspot.com/
Which is not to be confused with Octopussy, which have only been seen grabbing jewlery and Faberge Eggs.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
> the researchers believe is the first evidence of tool use in an invertebrate animal.
Well, granted the article notes that there are different definitions of tool use, but consider ants: e.g., Tool use by the forest ant Aphaenogaster rudis: Ecology and task allocation (http://www.springerlink.com/content/u0176rl71k572870/).
JAKARTA (OP) -- Indonesian octopi have discovered scientific misconduct in "vertebrate intelligence" research.
--
In SOVIET RUSSIA coconut apartments.
Two days ago.
Slashdot is for us old people who like stale news..
This is Effin' brilliant!
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Well, they are *clearly* his degenerate spawn, and reacting to the dreams of his coming... =)
http://spongebob.wikia.com/wiki/Squidward_Tentacles
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I put the lime in the coconut, drank 'em both up - and all I got was a flipper ache.
I had to call my doctor; wake him up.
See?
DG
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
I AM IN UR BASE, STEALIN UR COCONUTS!
DG
(Grr, Slashcode, LOL references have to be ALL CAPS!)
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Octopus_shell.jpg and this isn't the earliest evidence, either.
is the octopus is using the coconut shells to smuggle data past the now-mandatory internet firewall.
The only time you have to be concerned is when the octopus puts a lime in the coconut.
The summary states : "...the researchers believe is the first evidence of tool use in an invertebrate animal."
The original article even says : "That's an example of tool use, which has never been recorded in invertebrates before, Finn said."
However, pagurus bernhardus is another invertebrate which uses shells of a number of gastropod species for protection. These scientists have clearly not been doing their homework.
You can check the wiki here :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagurus_bernhardus
JARKA (OP) - Indonesian octopuses have discovered rubber flippers that attach themselves onto vertebrate animals that transport them across water - unusually sophisticated behavior that the researchers believe is the first evidence of intelligence in synthetic tools.
While this is a very interesting finding, I think the hermit crab's use of empty snails' shells is an already known example of similar tool use in an invertebrate.
Definitely not a typical /. story, but very interesting.
Really amazing to watch them "walk" while carrying the shells...
Thanks for the post!
I'm not sure a coconut is such a good place to hide because, well, coconuts are food too and coconut octopus sounds pretty tasty.
It's like that chicken that decided to hide inside a duck that decided to hide inside a turkey.