DNA Reveals Giant Squid From Around the World are Remarkably Similar
“An analysis of tissue samples from 43 giant squid (Architeuthis spp.) from around the world… mostly from dead squid that had been found washed up on beaches or floating on the ocean surface, although a few came from animals that were accidentally caught by deep-sea trawlers… (revealed) the mitochondrial DNA of the creatures, irrespective of where they came from — be it be it California, Japan, South Africa, New Zealand or somewhere else — … (to be) genetically very similar.” …(read more)
COMPLETE FOOTAGE Live Giant Squid Caught on Camera (2013)
Insane in the Chromatophores
During experiments on the axons of the Woods Hole squid (loligo pealei), music was tested on the squid’s chromatophores. The results were both interesting and beautiful.
Giant squid filmed in Pacific depths, scientists in Japan report…(read more)
I will be illustrating a giant pacific octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) for the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I am wondering about the siphon--is this a paired organ, or do they have only one? I will be drawing the right side of the animal.
Sights from my behind-the-scenes visit to the Smithsonian and the Smithsonian Support Center Library. I even saw the cephalopod holotypes!
Go behind the scenes with me!
Octopuses Gain Consciousness
The “privileged state of subjective awareness in fact goes well beyond Homo sapiens, according to the new Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness (pdf), which was signed last month by a group of cognitive neuroscientists, computational neuroscientists, neuroanatomists, neuropharmacologists, neurophysiologists who attended the Francis Crick Memorial Conference on Consciousness in Human and non-Human Animals at Cambridge University in the U.K….” (click here to read more)
Buoyed by water, he can fly in any direction-up, down, sideways-by merely flipping his hand. Under water, man becomes an archangel.
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Jacques Cousteau
I took a trip to the Smithsonian on Sunday and saw this History Channel Special on Deep Ocean Explorers. See what it’s like to be one of the few who have made the trip into the ocean depths.
The American Museum of Natural History’s Creatures of Light: Nature’s Bioluminescence App for Ipad
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Got to play with this awesome app last night! :D I highly recommend it!
Just how giant are a giant squid’s eyes? It’s a question that’s vexed scientists for a long time, given that giant squids are rarely found while still alive. Then researchers tracked down a picture of a dying giant squid taken in 1981. In the photo, there’s a fuel hose crossing the eye’s pupil. The researchers used the size of this standard hose to calculate the eye’s dimensions. The whole unblinking eye was about 10.5 inches across; the pupil was about 3.5 inches across. -@acarvin
Mike deGruy: “Hooked by an Octopus”
In this TED talk, the late underwater filmmaker and Biologist Mike deGruy (who was tragically killed in a helicopter crash in Australia around a week ago) talks about the importance of conserving the deep sea and his inspiration in the octopus.
Anonymous
