Vampire squid discovery shows how little we know of the deep sea

Date:

April 20, 2015

Source:

Cell Press

Summary:

Among soft-bodied cephalopods, vampire squid live life at a slower pace. At ocean depths from 500 to 3,000 meters, they don't swim so much as float, and they get by with little oxygen while consuming a low-calorie diet of zooplankton and detritus. Now, researchers have found that vampire squid differ from all other living coleoid cephalopods in their reproductive strategy as well.

Continued ...

Giant squid genetics reveal family secrets

By Ella Davies, Reporter, BBC Nature

Giant squid around the world are "basically identical" despite looking very different, say scientists.

The super-sized cephalopods live deep in the oceans and are little-known by the scientific community.

An international team of researchers investigated rare samples of the elusive animals' DNA to reveal their family secrets.

They discovered that there is just a single species of squid with no population structure.

The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The giant squid has been a source of fascination both before and beyond its formal description in 1857 by Danish biologist Japetus Steenstrup.

Its deep-dwelling lifestyle is largely unknown but specimens have been found globally, with the exception of Arctic and Antarctic waters.

Read on:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/21829711

Rare Kissing Octopus Unveiled For the First Time

Scientists are unveiling a rare octopus that has never been on public display before.

And unlike other octopuses, where females have a nasty habit of eating their partners during sex, Larger Pacific Striped Octopuses mate by pressing their beaks and suckers against each other in an intimate embrace.

CREDIT: Richard Ross 

The beautiful creature can also morph from dark red to black-and-white stripes and spots and can shape-shift from flat to expanded.

The sea dweller will be on display starting today (Mar. 6) at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

"I'm thrilled that Academy visitors will have the opportunity to view this fascinating animal up close in the aquarium, where they'll see just why its beauty, unique mating technique and social habits are intriguing the cephalopod community," said Richard Ross, a biologist at the California Academy of Sciences, in a statement.

Read on:

Dumpling squid slowed down by sex

Promiscuous dumpling squid take 30 minutes to return to normal swimming speed after mating, say scientists.

The short-lived cephalopods, named for their rotund shape, are known to mate with as many partners as possible.

Researchers studying this behaviour found that swimming endurance was halved after mating for both sexes.

They described mating as "costly" for the squid because it reduced the energy available for avoiding predators and feeding.

The study of wild-caught squid is published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

"The squid mate for up to three hours and the male must physically restrain the female during this time," said researcher Amanda Franklin from the University of Melbourne, Australia.

"It was exciting for us to show that this affects their physical abilities after mating because this has not been shown before."

Dumpling squid (Euprymna tasmanica) are members of the bobtail squid family and found along the southern coast of Australia.

Continued:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/18861785

The octopus' 'human-like' intelligence

The eight-armed mollusk can use tools, recognize humans, and even play games. Time to bow down before our new cephalopod overlords?

Octopuses are smarter than we thought. A mounting pile of evidence suggests that the eight-armed sea creatures exhibit a number of "human-like" tendencies that put them on the same intellectual plane as the wilier house pets. Here's why scientists have new respect for invertebrate cephalopods:

What "human-like" tendencies have been exhibited?
One octopus in captivity was observed "cleaning the front of its den" after securing food, then carefully arranging rocks to cover the entrance before going to sleep. Such an endeavor requires "foresight, planning," and "even tool use," says Sy Montgomery at Orion Magazine. In another study, octopuses "learned to open childproof caps on Extra Strength Tylenol Pill bottles — a feat that eludes many humans."

Read more here ...

Transparent Octopus Goes Opaque in Blink of an Eye

Two deep-ocean species of cephalopod, an octopus and a squid, can go from transparent to opaque in the blink of an eye, a new study finds.

This impressive camouflage swap is an adaptation that likely keeps the cephalopods safe from two different types of predators. The first are deep-sea creatures that hunt by looking upward for prey silhouetted against the light filtering down through thousands of feet of water. The second are fish that spotlight prey in "biological" headlights. These fish use bioluminescence, their own body-driven light source, to hunt for food.

To avoid being seen as a dark silhouette, it pays to be transparent, said study researcher Sarah Zylinski, a postdoctoral scientist at Duke University in North Carolina. But when a bioluminescent light hits a transparent surface, the effect would be like a flashlight shining on a windowpane at night, Zylinski said: very reflective, and extremely obvious.

"Being pigmented is the best strategy at that point," Zylinski told LiveScience. The octopus and squid species essentially have the best of both worlds, she said: "Being able to switch very rapidly between the two enables you to optimize your camouflage."

Masters of disguise
Many octopus, squid, cuttlefish and other cephalopods have the ability to rapidly change colors to disguise themselves from predators. Some octopus species even mimic the shapes of various fish and other sea life.

But those are all shallow-water creatures. Zylinski and her colleagues wanted to look deeper, at animals that live about 2,000 to 3,000 feet (600 to 1,000 meters) below the ocean surface. There is little light at this depth, though enough light filters down so that sharp-eyed fish can swim below prey, peering upwards and look for shadowy silhouettes.

On board research vessels in both the Sea of Cortez and over the Peru-Chile trench, Zylinski waited for deep trawling nets to pull catches out of the water. The nets are raised with painstaking slowness, Zylinski said, so that the pressure and light changes are not so abrupt for the animals caught inside.

"It's a bit like Christmas, because you never know what you're going to get in the net," she said.

"Sometimes it's like that really bad Christmas where you don't get what you want, and sometimes it's really exciting."

Presto-chango
When Zylinski scored a cephalopod catch, she quickly moved the animals from the dark nets into a dark, cool room so as not to expose them to daylight or boat lights. Then she tried various methods of stimulating color changes.

"The first set of experiments I did, we were using the kinds of stimuli that I would expect to get a response from shallow animals," Zylinski said, including looming objects or shadows passing overhead.

Read more ...

Giant Squid Killed by Sound?

"We now have proof" sonar blasts can harm squid, expert says.

Ker Than
for National Geographic News
Published May 3, 2011

When giant squid were found dead off Spain about a decade ago, scientists suspected that powerful sound pulses from ships had harmed the animals. Now the evidence may be in.

A new study says low-frequency sounds from human activities can affect squid and other cephalopods, not just whales and other marine mammals, which have long been thought to be vulnerable to such pulses. (See "U.S. Navy Sonar May Harm Killer Whales, Expert Says.")

The finding suggests noise pollution in the ocean is having a much broader effect on marine life than previously thought, said study leader Michel André, a marine bioacoustician at Barcelona's Technical University of Catalonia.

"We know that noise pollution in the oceans has a significant impact on dolphins and whales [which use natural sonar to navigate and hunt]. ... but this is the first study indicating a severe impact on invertebrates, an extended group of marine species that are not known to rely on sound for living," André said in a statement.

(Related: "Colossal Squid Has Glowing 'Cloaking Device,' Huge Eyes.")

Giant Squid Mystery Solved?

In the early 2000s the remains of giant squid were found off Spain's Asturias province (map). In each case, the creatures' bodies appeared soon after ships had used air guns to conduct low-frequency sound-pulse exercises in the region, in some cases for oil-and-gas prospecting efforts.

Scientists investigating the giant squid remains at the time found evidence of extensive bodily damage, including mantles reduced to pulp, bruised muscles, and lesions in statocysts. These fluid-filled organs rest behind the creatures' eyes and help giant squid maintain balance and position. (See pictures of a colossal squid dissection.)

At the time, marine biologist Angel Guerra speculated—but was unable to prove—that noise from prospecting ships was harming cephalopods and other marine life.

"With this study, we now have proof" that low-frequency sounds can harm cephalopods, said Guerra, a marine biologist at Spain's Marine Research Institute who was not involved in the current study, which will appear in a future issue of the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

(See rare pictures of sperm whales eatiing a giant squid.)

Damage Worsened With Time

During the study, the research team examined the effects of low-frequency sound exposure in 87 individual cephalopods belonging to four species: two species of squid, one species of octopus, and one species of cuttlefish. (See "Cuttlefish Change Color, Shape-Shift to Elude Predators.")

For two hours the animals were exposed to sound with intensities of between 157 and 175 decibels and frequency ranges of 50 to 400 Hertz.

These frequencies and intensities "are commonly found in the noise produced by many activities at sea," such as military sonar tests or efforts to detect oil and natural gas by gauging the nature of material beneath the seabed, the Technical University of Catalonia's André told National Geographic News.

After the sound exposure, the scientists killed the animals, either immediately or up to 96 hours afterward.

The animals that were killed immediately after exposure showed signs of damage to their statocyst tissue. Specifically, tiny hairlike structures in statocyst cells—which bend as the cephalopods move through water and help the animals balance—were lost, essentially crippling the creatures.

The animals allowed to live longer showed further damage, including large, visible holes in the statocyst tissue.

"This is a typical process found in land mammals and birds after acute noise exposure: a massive acoustic trauma followed by peripheral damage, making the lesions worse over time," André said.

In their final seconds or hours, the test cephalopods "moved a little bit, but they were not swimming, eating, or mating," André said.

A separate group of about a hundred cephalopods was not exposed to the pulses. They remained healthy and behaved normally.

Both groups had been kept in the same aquariums before being separated, and all the animals had behaved normally before the tests—ruling out the possibility that the damage observed in the test group was due to captivity or human handling, he said.

(Pictures: "Giant Squid Get Extreme Plastic Surgery.")

"Raise the Alarm" for Giant Squid?

Though the cephalopods in the experiments were much smaller than giant squid, the experiments represent "the same phenomena as with the giant squid," the Marine Research Institute's Guerra said.

The test animals are appropriate stand-ins for their giant squid cousins, according to Guerra, who said he sees no reason why the findings wouldn't apply to giant squid.

There are some differences in the damage, though.

The injuries to the giant squid found last decade, he noted, were much more pronounced than in the experimental animals. Guerra attributes this to the higher acoustic intensities and multiple sound sources giant squid are exposed to in the real world.

And of course, the giant squid were found not just injured but dead, unlike the test animals. But scientists say the case of the giant squid off Spain suggests death is one possible outcome of exposure to low-frequency blasts.

At the time of the giant squid deaths, "we hypothesized that the giant squid died in one of two ways: either by direct impact from the sound waves or by having their statocysts practically destroyed and [the squid] becoming disoriented," Guerra explained.

"The disoriented animals might wander up from the depths to the surface, where the temperature difference kills them."

Marine zoologist Michael Vecchione, of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), isn't yet sure.

Though the new research presents enough evidence to "raise the alarm," more studies are necessary before a solid case can be made that human-caused noise pollution is causing pervasive damage to marine life, said Vecchione, who also did not participate in the study.

But, he added, "the evidence is accumulating that what [Guerra] first proposed based on the giant squid might actually be correct."

More: Alien-like Squid With 'Elbows' Filmed at Drilling Site >>

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/05/110503-giant-squid-octopus-sonar-acoustic-tests-science-whales-sound/

Paul the Octopus gets memorialized

Tentacled tipster immortalized by aquarium

Thursday, 20 Jan 2011, 6:11 PM EST

BERLIN (AP) - Paul the celebrated octopus has finally got his tentacles wrapped around a soccer ball.

The Sea Life aquarium in Oberhausen on Thursday unveiled an outsized memorial to the World Cup's most unlikely star: A 6 1/2-foot (2-meter) tall plastic replica of Paul clutching a ball in his eight arms.

Aquarium spokeswoman Tanja Munzig says Paul's cremated ashes were placed in a gold-leaf-covered urn inside the ball. Paul died three months ago and Munzig says fans around the world had asked for a memorial.

Paul correctly tipped the outcome of all seven of Germany's games at last year's World Cup plus the Spain-Netherlands final. He made his predictions by opening the lid of one of two boxes, each containing a mussel and bearing a team flag.

http://www.myndytv.com/dpps/strange_news/strange/paul-the-octopus-gets-memorialilzed-wd11-tvw_3701711

Ancient squidlike creature's final meal revealed

X-ray scan shows tiny crustaceans stuck between ammonite's teeth

By Stephanie Pappas Senior writer
LiveScience

Millions of years ago, a squidlike creature called an ammonite died with the remains of its last meal wedged between its teeth. Now, new high-tech images reveal that meal — a mini-snail and three tiny crustaceans — and shed light on the diet of these once-common creatures.

"It gives us an insight because we never knew what these ammonites were eating," study researcher Neil Landman, a curator of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, told LiveScience. "They were such a big part of the ocean biota ... Now, for the first time, we think, 'Oh, we've got them. They're eating plankton in the water.'"

There's nothing in today's world quite like an ammonite. Like the squid and the octopus, ammonites were cephalopods, a type of mollusk, but that's about as far as the similarities go. They roamed the seas from 407 million to 65 million years ago, when they went extinct. Ammonite fossils are common, especially in South Dakota where Landman and his colleagues found their specimens.

Unlike today's squid and octopus, ammonites had external shells. Some species' shells were spirals, much like that of their closest-living look-alike, the nautilus. Other species had shells shaped like unicorn horns. It was one of these long-shelled groups, the baculites, that Landman and his colleagues examined.

Delicate specimens

Because baculite jaws are small and delicate, it's difficult to examine them without destroying the fossil specimen. Even if you were willing to slice up a specimen for examination, the process is likely to destroy the very structures you're trying to study, Landman said.

So the research team turned to a new technology, synchrotron X-ray microtomography. The technology is much like a very detailed CT scan. X-rays create virtual slices of the specimen, which are then stitched together into a three-dimensional image by computer software.

"You rely on all of this sophisticated software that puts all of these slices together and, my god, you're just astonished at what you see," Landman said.

In this case, the researchers saw a large lower jaw with thin teeth. Like many mollusks today, baculites had radula, or tonguelike structures covered with teeth like a comb. These structures stretch out like a conveyer belt to shepherd food to the esophagus, Landman said.

For ancient prey, the effect would have looked like something out of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," Landman said.

"If you were the size of a crustacean swimming in the water and you would see what looked to be a giant ammonite coming at you with a giant, beaklike jaw, you'd worry, I think," he said. "If you had the capacity for worry."

The last supper

One of the most amazing images revealed by the scans shows fragments of planktonic, or floating, crustacean stuck between the teeth of one of the ammonite fossils. The ammonite died with its last meal still in its mouth: three crustacean pieces just a few millimeters in length and a tiny larval snail. [ See a photo of an unfortunate crustacean]

That's fairly strong evidence that baculites were swimming in the water column snacking on plankton, said David Jacobs, a paleobiologist at the University of California at Los Angeles. The find makes sense, considering that the baculites' environment likely wouldn't have had much oxygen to support plant life on the bottom, Jacobs told LiveScience. It's also hard to imagine a 2-foot-long shelled animal shaped like an ice-cream cone chasing down large prey, he said.

"It really is a nice confirmation of what people might have thought but didn't have a lot of supporting evidence for," said Jacobs, who was not involved in the study.

The find also helps researchers better understand how ammonites fit into their ancient ecosystem. The question of what baculites ate has been a "hot debate," said Peter Harries, a paleontologist at the University of South Florida who was not involved in the study. The findings may not apply to other species of ammonites, he said, but they're important for understanding the ancient food web.

"It tells us a lot about the baculites, which during that time were extremely dominant," Harries told LiveScience. "So I think there it really has helped nail down their life habits."

Landman already has some theories about baculites' role in the circle of life. Baculites in the water column may have excreted fecal pellets (i.e., poop) that then fell to the ocean floor and provided snacks for bottom-feeders, he said. And the animals' habit of feeding on plankton may have spelled their downfall during the catastrophe that killed off the non-avian dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

"Lots and lots of plankton became extinct at the time and, curiously, so did the ammonites," Landman said. "This is one of those 'aha' moments. Maybe the ammonites were relying on plankton as a food source, and when the plankton suffered ... maybe this had a direct consequence on the ammonites."

The researchers detailed their findings in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

Oracle octopus gets own World Cup for winning streak

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN | Mon Jul 12, 2010 2:04pm BST

BERLIN (Reuters) - Paul the oracle octopus was given a replica of the World Cup on Monday as a reward for his perfect eight-for-eight record in picking matches as worldwide collected their winnings based on his selections.

The two-year-old octopus with possible psychic powers turned into a worldwide celebrity for accurately predicting the winner of Germany's five World Cup wins as well as their two defeats. Paul also tipped Spain to beat Netherlands in Sunday's final.

"We've had a lot of offers for Paul but he will definitely be staying with us and returning to his old job -- making children smile," Sea Life spokeswoman Tanja Munzig in Oberhausen told Reuters after presenting Paul with the World Cup replica.

"There's no rational reason why he always got it right."

Bettors around the world made small fortunes based on Paul's uncanny picks, said Graham Sharpe, media relations director at William Hill in London.

"I've seen a lot of things in my lifetime but this is the first time I've ever seen people making their picks based on what an octopus tells them," Sharpe told Reuters.

"We had people coming in saying they didn't know how to place a bet but heard about this German octopus and wanted to bet with him. It's ludicrous. But he kept getting it right," said Sharpe. "It's one of the finest tipping feats ever."

Sharpe said that anyone who had placed a 10-pound accumulator bet on Paul's picks from the start of the World Cup would have won 3,000 pounds by the end of the tournament.

Paul's home at Sea Life aquarium in Oberhausen has been inundated with visitors and media from across Europe. Many networks broadcast his picks live. Hundreds were on hand to watch the World Cup replica lowered into his tank on Monday.

WINNING BETS

"Paul now wants to say good-bye to the whole world," Daniel Fey, a supervisor at Sea Life, told Reuters. "He really enjoyed all the media attention but now he's returning to his old job."

Yet interest in the 50-cm long octopus remained intense, especially after his last two picks on Friday were once again accurate. Germany won Saturday's match for third place and Spain won Sunday's final -- as Paul had called it on Friday.

Last week Germans were shocked and distraught when he picked Spain to beat Germany in the semi-final after tipping German wins over Argentina, England, Ghana and Australia.

And after Spain beat Germany, many wanted to publicly grill him. Sea Life installed extra security to protect their octopus.

"We have to remember he's quite old now -- 2-1/2 years is quite old for an octopus," Fey said.

Probability experts were quoted in media reports saying the likelihood of getting eight consecutive picks right is 1/256. Sharpe said the odds of getting eight straight right was over 1/300. Humbled professors were quoted saying Paul got lucky.

The octopus, considered by some to be the most intelligent of all invertebrates, had a choice of picking food from two different transparent containers lowered into his tank -- each with a national flag on it.

The container Paul opened first was regarded as his pick.

Sharpe at William Hill said he had at first been sceptical about the oracle octopus. But he became a believer.

"I suspect that Paul's predictions could have made about a half a million pounds," Sharpe said, adding he estimated William Hill paid out 100,000 pounds on his picks at its 2,300 outlets.

"We had people coming in asking who Paul had picked before they placed their bets," Sharpe said. "I'm sure there were a lot more people too who were too embarrassed to tell you they made their bet based on what the octopus said."

He said it was the first time in 30 years of work that he had seen "such widely orchestrated use of a non-human tipster."

Sharpe said he, unfortunately, did not follow Paul's advice. "It'd have been too embarrassing," he said. But Sharpe said he was going on holiday soon. "I'm going to the seaside and intend to eat as much octopus as I can cram down as revenge," he said.

(Editing by Paul Casciato)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6673H820100712

Psychic octopus predicts Spain to beat Germany

July 6, 2010 5:00 PM

A "psychic" octopus with an uncanny ability to predict the result of World Cup football matches has tipped Spain to beat Germany in the semi-final.

Paul the octopus, from he Sea Life Aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany has so far correctly predicted all the games involving the national team.

His predictions involve handlers at the attraction putting two boxes of tasty mussels into his tank, each with the flag of one team on the front.

The mussels he goes for first are then taken to be his "psychic" prediction and bookies claim many people even place bets on the back of them.

However, the creature has a less then perfect record when these two teams meet - during Euro 2008 he wrongly picked Germany as the victor against Spain. If he is right this time he could end up in a paella.

LINKS
SeaLife

http://newslite.tv/2010/07/06/psychic-octopus-predicts-spain.html

Paul the octopus is a sucker pundit

By Josh Layton 26/06/2010

England's World Cup hopes have been dealt a blow - by a psychic octopus.

Paul the octopus has correctly predicted all of Germany's wins and defeats in the World Cup so far - and he is tipping them to beat Fabio Capello's team tomorrow.

To get his predictions, food is lowered into Paul's tank in two containers with the flag of each country on the front. The one he goes for is his tip to win.

For this last 16 clash in Bloemfontein, Paul opted for a mussel in a glass of water marked with the black, red and yellow flag of our fierce rivals.

To rub salt in England's wounds, twoyear-old Paul lives in Oberhausen Sea Life centre in Germany but is originally from Weymouth, Dorset.

The centre's Tanja Munzig, who looks after the creature, said: "For the European Championship in 2008 Paul's success rate was more than 80% for Germany games.

"And for this World Cup, he has had a 100% success rate so far." She'll probably shell out a few squid on the result.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/06/26/paul-the-octopus-is-a-sucker-pundit-115875-22361809/
(Submitted by Mark North)

Ancient cephalopod identified

SQUID'S IN: A 500 million-year-old cephalopod fossil shows modern squids have a much older ancestry than previously thought. Nectocaris pteryx was about 5cm long and resembled a cuttlefish with two long, grasping tentacles. Scientists have analysed 91 new Nectocaris fossils and Yoho National Park in British Columbia, Canada, and concluded it was a primitive cephalopod.

http://e-edition.metro.co.uk/2010/05/27/ - p23.

Monster colossal squid is slow not fearsome predator

Friday, 7 May 2010 12:48 UK

By Jody Bourton
Earth News reporter

The world's largest invertebrate is not a fast and voracious predator as previously thought, say scientists.

The colossal squid, a creature once linked to maritime myth and feared as a sea monster, is really a slow drifting animal that ambushes unwitting prey.

That conclusion was reached by studying the physiology and feeding habits of other deep sea species and scaling up to the colossal squid's huge size.

Rarely seen, the elusive ocean giant is thought to reach up to 15m long.

Researchers reveal their findings in the Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom.

The colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) is thought to roam in the deep waters of the Southern Ocean.

Rarely seen alive or dead, little is known about its way of life.

Estimates vary, but it is thought to measure 15m in length with a large dome-shaped mantle.

It also has long tentacles and arms containing swivelling hooks used to grapple and maul prey.

A recent specimen studied had eyes approximately 27cm (11in) across, believed to be the largest animal eye yet discovered.

The 'kraken'

Its large size and predatory nature fuelled the ancient myth of the underwater "kraken" seamonster and modern speculation that the colossal squid must be aggressive and fast, attributes that allow it to prey on fish and even give sperm whales a hard time.

Yet as the creature is seldom encountered let alone studied, there are no direct measurements of the colossal squid's behaviour.

So instead, the team used a set of routine metabolic rates for other deep-sea squid species and extrapolated the data to match the colossal squid's size.

They also factored into their calculations the cold temperature of the Southern Ocean the squid inhabits.

"The understanding of the mode of life of the colossal squid is a significant event in the ongoing investigation of enigmatic large animals of the ocean," says Dr Rui Rosa from the University of Lisbon in Portugal, who undertook the study with Dr Brad Seibel from the University of Rhode Island, Kingston, US.

"In this paper we present the first estimates of the metabolic and energetic demands of this cold-water deep-sea giant."

The researchers calculations reveal the colossal squid survives on only a small amount of prey.

"Our findings demonstrate that the colossal squid has a daily energy consumption 300-fold to 600-fold lower than those of other similar-sized top predators of the Southern Ocean, such as baleen and toothed whales," says Dr Rosa.

Recent studies have previously identified chemical variants known as isotopes in colossal squid specimens which have revealed large fish, notably Antarctic toothfish as its main prey.

This study reveals a single 5kg Antarctic toothfish would provide enough nourishment for a 500kg colossal squid to survive for 200 days.

It is thought the cold temperature in which the squid lives affects its metabolic rate.

That reduces the amount of prey it must take in relative to animals such as whales that live higher in the water and generate their own body heat.

Different animal

The result is the colossal squid is not the creature once thought.

"The colossal squid is not a voracious predator capable of high-speed predator-prey interactions," says Dr Rosa.

"It is rather, an ambush or sit-and-float predator that uses the hooks on its arms and tentacles to ensnare prey that unwittingly approach."

The team also suggest that the colossal squid's huge eyes do not help it hunt, but instead help it detect and avoid predators of its own in the deep dark waters where it lives.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8664000/8664542.stm

Octopus steals underwater camera from diver - while it's recording

Tom Phillips - 21st April, 2010

A New Zealand diver was forced to chase an underwater camera-stealing octopus which wrestled his brand new device from his hands and swam away, with the camera still recording.

The incredible video gives a tentacle-covered view of the five-minute chase, which only ended after the diver used his speargun to prise the camera back from the thieving octopus's grip.

Victor Huang was diving near the Wahine Memorial off the south coast of Wellington on Thursday when the octopus suddenly burst out of a bed of kelp. Huang 'freaked out' at first as he thought the octopus was attacking him - before realising that the octopus was actually just after his shiny new Panasonic Lumix camera.

A wrestling match ensued between the two as Huang tried to hold onto the camera as the octopus attempted to prise it from his grip. And in the end, the tentacle proved too strong - and the octopus 'swam away very quickly like a naughty shoplifter', Hung said on his YouTube video of the event.

The video then shows the camera's-eye view of the chase that followed - mostly covered in suckers - as Huang frantically swam after the octopus in an attempt to get his camera back.

It took five minute for him to catch up with the creature, at which point he managed to get his speargun under the creature and, when it grabbed hold of that as well, use it to pry the camera from its grasp.

He then spent a few more minutes taking the octopus for a ride on his speargun, which he says the octopus seemed to enjoy. He doesn't think the octopus meant him any harm - it had just become fascinated by the gadget.

'I honestly believe that it saw the bright blue digital camera and went ‘oh I need that’, you know?' Huang told stuff.co.nz.

Chef finds octopus with extra leg

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. - Nineopus. Novopus. Freak of nature.

Whatever you want to call it, the nine-legged octopus probably had a leg up on all the other creatures in the Gulf of Mexico -- until it was caught and found its way to Hellas Bakery and Restaurant in Florida.

Head Chef Emmanuel Psomas says he was steaming the octopus Thursday when he discovered that it seemed, well, leggier than normal. Psomas says he's cooked octopus for 40 years -- it's a Greek delicacy -- and has never seen one with an extra leg.

He says he counted the legs three times in disbelief.

"I'm like, this can't be," Psomas said. "I've seen a lot of octopus."

He's keeping the octopus in his refrigerator for now, but he plans to enjoy it soon with a bit of vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil and herbs.

While unusual, marine experts say the extra leg on the octopus is likely due to genetic mutation.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2010/04/03/13453656-ap.html

HDTV reveals brainy octopus has no personality

12:32 12 March 2010 by Shanta Barley

Octopuses make for discerning TV viewers: it seems they prefer high-definition to traditional cathode ray images (CRT). What's more, the first study using video to trick octopuses, finds that they may be the Jekyll and Hydes of the oceans: aggressive one day, shrinking violets the next.

"People have been trying for over a decade to get proper behavioural responses from octopuses and other cephalopods using videos," says Roger Hanlon, an octopus researcher at the Marine Resources Center, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, who was not involved in the study. "But this is the first time anyone has managed it."

Gloomy octopuses (Octopus tetricus) reacted to films shown on liquid crystal high definition television (HDTV) as if they were seeing the real thing, according to a new study by Renata Pronk at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, and colleagues. "They lunge forwards to attack crabs and back off from other octopuses, much as they do in the wild," says Hanlon.

Surprisingly, an octopus that was bold, aggressive and exploratory on one day was just as likely to be shy, submissive and stationary the next. "This suggests that the gloomy octopus does not have personality," writes Pronk in the new study.

No personality

By "personality", researchers mean consistency in behaviour. You might expect an individual to respond to crabs, other octopuses, jars, for example, by being consistently bold, shy or aggressive.

In contrast, the octopuses in Pronk's study were more moody than gloomy. The team captured 31 gloomy octopuses in Sydney harbour and showed them a set of 3-minute videos displayed on a screen at the front of their tank. The videos were filmed at 50 frames per second and featured a crab (their prey), another gloomy octopus, a jar and a water-filled aquarium.

Previous attempts to get octopuses to respond to videos failed, probably because they used CRT, which displays footage at a rate of 24 frames per second – too slowly for their sophisticated eyes. "The images that they see on CRT screens are incomplete and probably incoherent," says Hanlon.

To Pronk's surprise, the octopuses behaved as if animals in the film were real. They lunged forwards at crabs using jet propulsion, often striking the front of the aquarium. But when they saw films of other octopuses, which they avoid in the wild, they cowered behind a terracotta pot placed in the aquarium.

Octopuses that reacted to one film aggressively tended to respond to all films on a particular day in the same way. But over longer periods of time, any trace of "personality" or consistency evaporated. They might react aggressively one day, but much less so on another day. "It's a bit of a surprise," says Hanlon. Other cephalopods, such as the dumpling squid, display consistent personalities for most of their lives.

Huge brains

This lack of consistent behaviour may be related to octopuses's huge brain size, relative to other cephalopods. Big brains may "afford octopuses considerable behavioural flexibility that allows them to change their behaviour adaptively over time," write the researchers.

Lack of personality may not necessarily be a bad thing. They live in dynamic environments (shallow coastal waters and reefs) and "these conditions may select for behavioural flexibility as individuals could then optimise their behaviour in a variety of typical environmental conditions". For example, behaving shyly may be an octopus's best response when it is threatened by a predator, but behaving boldly may be the best behaviour when foraging.

Hormones may drive short-term changes in the octopuses' behaviour from day to day, the authors also speculate.

The new video technology used in the experiment could help to settle several long-standing debates, says Hanlon. "For example, scientists have debated since 1992 whether or not an octopus can learn behaviours simply by watching each other," he says. "This technology will open many doors."

Journal reference: The Journal of Experimental Biology, DOI: 10.1242/jeb.040675

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18640-hdtv-reveals-brainy-octopus-has-no-personality.html
(Submitted by Tim Chapman)

Deadly octopus turns up in girl's bath

January 12, 2010

A six-year-old Melbourne girl's weekend hobby has almost turned deadly.

Holly Smith was washing a shell she'd collected at Point Lonsdale beach on Sunday when a blue-ringed octopus fell into her bathtub.

The Geelong Advertiser reports the girl was washing a large, curled periwinkle shell when the deadly octopus fell into the bath.

The blue-ringed octopus is recognised as one of the world's most venomous animals and can cause paralysis in humans within minutes.

The girl's father, Justin Smith, was understandably alarmed by the incident.

"It was just a complete surprise that my daughter's hobby, which I'd been watching in a relaxed manner, turned out to be one that in future I'll need to be watching much more carefully," he told the Geelong Advertiser.

Holly told Channel Seven, "The octopus just plopped out."

"It would have poisoned us," she said.

Holly says she'll keep collecting shells but will be more careful, and is taking the preserved octopus into school for 'show and tell'.

Her mum reiterated that it's a good warning.

Blue-ringed octopuses are common throughout Australia and rest in quiet places before feeding at night.

A bite from the octopus is often relatively painless and may go unnoticed.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/queensland/a/-/latest/6670257/deadly-octopus-turns-up-in-girls-bath/

Octopus snatches coconut and runs

Photo: Jens Petersen

Monday, 14 December 2009

By Rebecca Morelle
Science reporter, BBC News

An octopus and its coconut-carrying antics have surprised scientists.

Underwater footage reveals that the creatures scoop up halved coconut shells before scampering away with them so they can later use them as shelters.

Writing in the journal Current Biology, the team says it is the first example of tool use in octopuses.

One of the researchers, Dr Julian Finn from Australia's Museum Victoria, told BBC News: "I almost drowned laughing when I saw this the first time."

He added: "I could tell it was going to do something, but I didn't expect this - I didn't expect it would pick up the shell and run away with it."

Quick getaway

The veined octopuses (Amphioctopus marginatus) were filmed between 1999 and 2008 off the coasts of Northern Sulawesi and Bali in Indonesia. The bizarre behaviour was spotted on four occasions.

The eight-armed beasts used halved coconuts that had been discarded by humans and had eventually settled in the ocean.

Dr Mark Norman, head of science at Museum Victoria, Melbourne, and one of the authors of the paper, said: "It is amazing watching them excavate one of these shells. They probe their arms down to loosen the mud, then they rotate them out."

After turning the shells so the open side faces upwards, the octopuses blow jets of mud out of the bowl before extending their arms around the shell - or if they have two halves, stacking them first, one inside the other - before stiffening their legs and tip-toeing away.

Dr Norman said: "I think it is amazing that those arms of pure muscle get turned into rigid rods so that they can run along a bit like a high-speed spider.

"It comes down to amazing dexterity and co-ordination of eight arms and several hundred suckers."

Home, sweet home

The octopuses were filmed moving up to 20m with the shells.

And their awkward gait, which the scientists describe as "stilt-walking", is surprisingly speedy, possibly because the creatures are left vulnerable to attack from predators while they scuttle away with their prized coconuts.

The octopuses eventually use the shells as a protective shelter. If they just have one half, they simply turn it over and hide underneath. But if they are lucky enough to have retrieved two halves, they assemble them back into the original closed coconut form and sneak inside.

The shells provide important protection for the octopuses in a patch of seabed where there are few places to hide.

Dr Norman explained: "This is an incredibly dangerous habitat for these animals - soft sediment and mud couldn't be worse.

"If they are buried loose in mud without a shell, any predator coming along can just scoop them up. And they are pure rump steak, a terrific meat supply for any predator."

The researchers think that the creatures would initially have used large bivalve shells as their haven, but later swapped to coconuts after our insatiable appetite for them meant their discarded shells became a regular feature on the sea bed.

Surprisingly smart

Tool use was once thought to be an exclusively human skill, but this behaviour has now been observed in a growing list of primates, mammals and birds.

The researchers say their study suggests that these coconut-grabbing octopuses should now be added to these ranks.

Professor Tom Tregenza, an evolutionary ecologist from the University of Exeter, UK, and another author of the paper, said: "A tool is something an animal carries around and then uses on a particular occasion for a particular purpose.

"While the octopus carries the coconut around there is no use to it - no more use than an umbrella is to you when you have it folded up and you are carrying it about. The umbrella only becomes useful when you lift it above your head and open it up.

"And just in the same way, the coconut becomes useful to this octopus when it stops and turns it the other way up and climbs inside it."

He added that octopuses already have a reputation for being an intelligent invertebrate.

He explained: "They've been shown to be able to solve simple puzzles, there is the mimic octopus, which has a range of different species that it can mimic, and now there is this tool use.

"They do things which, normally, you'd only expect vertebrates to do."

See video at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8408233.stm

Big catch, rare find - Scientists net giant squid in Gulf of Mexico

By ERIC BERGER
Sept. 21, 2009

Scientists weren't sure what they would find when plumbing the Gulf of Mexico's depths for the prey of sperm whales, but they got more than they bargained for when they netted a 20-foot giant squid.

“This was beyond everyone's expectations,” said Deborah Epperson, a U.S. Minerals Management Service biologist leading the study.

Just once before, in 1954, has a giant squid been found in the Gulf of Mexico. That animal's remains were floating at the surface near the mouth of the Mississippi River.

Scientists know the creatures live in the Gulf because they have found remnants in the stomachs of sperm whales.

The find came on July 30 during one of the first cruises of a two-year, $550,000 project by Minerals Management Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to characterize the nature and diversity of what sperm whales eat in the Gulf.

The project is part of the government's effort to better understand an endangered sperm whale population living in an area that is highly industrialized with oil and gas exploration and production activities.

Found off Louisiana
Sperm whales are the giant squid's only known predator.

The 103-pound specimen was found after scientists trawled at 1,500 feet and then pulled their net to the surface off Louisiana.

“As the trawl net rose out of the water, I could see that we had something big in there — really big,” said Anthony Martinez, a marine mammal scientist for NOAA, according to an agency news release. “We knew there was a remote possibility of encountering a giant squid on this cruise, but it was not something we were realistically expecting.”

The squid, like other deep water catches, was dead when brought to the surface because the animals can't survive the rapid changes in water depth as they are hauled in. Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History are studying the specimen further to determine its exact species.

The squid, like other deep water catches, was dead when brought to the surface because the animals can't survive the rapid changes in water depth as they are hauled in. Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History are studying the specimen further to determine its exact species.

Giant squid can grow up to 40 feet in length, and because scientists know so little about them, they're not sure if the Gulf specimen is a full-grown adult, Epperson said.

The large, rarely seen animals live around the globe, found typically near continental slopes where the continental shelf meets deep water. Scientists believe they live there because canyons cut into the slope offer easy access to fish and smaller squid.

The recent find has heightened expectations for the second, more thorough phase of the two-year cruising program that begins in January and will run through March, Epperson said

“This really heightens the fact of how little we know about what's in the Gulf of Mexico, and the diversity in the deep water,” she said. “We just can't be sure of what we will find.”

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6629267.html