Howdy,
I'm going to start an independent study with a prof here at TAMUG and am interested in the mechanics behind octopus arm reaching. I have been very unsuccessful in finding background info. I have only found two articles and both are more centered in neurobiology.
I'm basically just looking for any works on biomechanics with cephalopods.
Any help is most appreciated
Michael

Check out the 2/10 Nature (433, p595 - 596).

I like it, but it may be a little "arm wavy" :)

Dan

Hi A/C,

Check out the journals Copeia, Journal of Malacology, and Malacologica. I would suggest going back at least ten years from present date. I'll make some phone calls and see if I can find out anything more.

Sushi and Sake,

John

Check that ... Malacologica and Nature seem to be the best advice. Also, contact the NRCC. Good luck on the research!

Sorry, but I'm "pissed as a chook" as Steve O' would say... Been drinking with my wife and members of the Wildlife Dept. at HSU. Today was Wildlife Conclave, and I got to help dissect a cougar, and a deer, and get to learn more about wildlife around the area than I thought possible. Then the drinking started and I remember talking about zoology with someone... and then...

Oh, I'm going to hear about this tomorrow... :shock:

John

Thanks for the help, I'll be looking into all sources and give an update, or post if I have more questions (which is most likely the case).
Michael

There's a VERY interesting article due out in the next issue of 'Science' regarding this very subject, and a follow-up piece in 'New Scientist', but I'm afraid that I am not at liberty to talk about it (it is not my work; I'm just privy to a little inside information).

Keep your eyes peeled next week. If anyone has seen any behaviour comparable to that about to be reported I'd be very interested in hearing about it.

You've come across this site (http://www.octopus.huji.ac.il/) already, haven't you?

This guy has done a lot of work on the musculature of cephs: http://www.bio.unc.edu/faculty/kier/

I think he has a chapter in the Mollusca many-volume set a lot of university libraries have, and quite a bit more recent stuff.

:twocents:

Bill Kier rules, and that article in The Mollusca was splendid. Anyone with access to it should read it, and those who don't might try to get at least a little taste of the relevant stuff from here (http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~palaeont/palbio3/14.pdf). That article on octopus suckers by Kier and Smith could also do with a touch of 'popularizing' somewhere here at TONMO.com.

Also look for papers by or co authored by Natalie Moltchaniwskyj She does some work on ceph musculature (based at Uni Tasmania in Launceston)

J