Wednesday 20 August 2014

Bright and Beautiful. And Spiky.


Wow! What a beauty!

This spectacular vision is a deep sea octopus from the suborder cirrata.


Cirrate octopods have three main things that distinguish them from those within the other, more familiar suborder called incirrata. They are: a small, internal shell, a pair of fins on the mantle, and cirri.

The cirri look like spikes on the arms and this octopus has particularly long, threatening ones. It looks like silk sheets crossed with a bed of nails. A most luxurious torture.


Video: EVNautilus

The video calls this one a Dumbo Octopus, which can work! Sure has the ears for it. However, I think of Dumbos as the little, squat ones in the genus Grimpoteuthis. This looks more like one of the big, long ones in Stauroteuthis.

Stauroteuthids have been found with tiny copepods in their gut so while no-one is quite sure, it seems they use those enormous cirri to create a current that ushers crustaceans right into their mouth. The cirri are actually fleshy and not hard as nails at all!

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Check it out on Nautilus Live. I'm loving Nautilus!

4 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

funky dumbo.

Crunchy said...

Ever see the remake of The Mist? They base one of their monsters on this little guy. Or at least the monster's tentacle on this little guy's tentacle. Also the monster isn't little. And its cirri aren't silky.

Joseph JG said...

@TexWisGirl: Yup, Dumbo in a fancy suit!

@Crunchy: Oh wow. No, I had to look that up and now I'm horrified. I think I'll stick with the octopus!

Porakiya said...

@Crunchy: yay for monster movies! too bad mother nature beats movie makers to most of their horrific ideas