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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.
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.
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.
I once had a pet octopus. It was small about the size of a fist all curled up. It was always moving things around the tank and rebuilding his or her stone "house".
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
While he may be a perfectly sensitive, metrosexual kind of guy, the immediate problem is that he was diving with SCUBA gear. Full out ROTFL in a SCUBA set can be a bit problematic. Deep gasps of water can ruin your day.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
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.
To be fair, one is very unlikely to be ROTFL in SCUBA gear. Far more likely is to be FITDL (Flailing In The Deep Laughing).
Especially so if you screw up the gas mixture in your tank.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
You're laughing now. Just wait until Cthulhu returns.
I'a! I'a! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
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.