Is this real?
Seems a bit off and pictures look photoshopped.

http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

Is this real?
Seems a bit off and pictures look photoshopped.

http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

Sadly, it is just a myth (or is it?). Much like
http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/i/squid/full/

for some reason, cephs seem to be very popular with "this is almost believable" web sites, maybe because giant squids are one of the few "cryptozoology" animals that turned out to actually be proven to exist, so a lot of people associate cephs with urban legend kinds of things.

If you like tongue-in-cheek science, the Museum of Jurrassic Technology (http://mjt.org) is pretty cool. I think that all of the mjt exhibits are "real" in the sense that they are what is documented, even if they are not what would normally be considered "science" or "natural history"-- for example, I think the "letters to Mount Wilson" exhibit really consisted of genuine letters sent by crackpots to what was at the time the most famous observatory in the world.

Hahaha, I remember this site! Mind you I did find this here as well
http://www.mercopress.com/Detalle.asp?NUM=7210
Dunno whether it's true or not.

Graeme

I actually read a book (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679764895/sr=8-1/qid=1140037497/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-0160567-5520119?%5Fencoding=UTF8)on the Museum of Jurassic Technology. I got about halfway through (I'm terrible about finishing books) but it was pretty interesting! I couldn't tell if it was real or fake, which is fun.

I came across that too! I didn't think it was real, but who knows

To clear up any confusion whatsoever, there is no such thing as a tree octopus. The folks at Zapatopi.net are long-time friends of TONMO.com nonetheless! (And their site is excellent)

http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/wp-content/images/squid_flat.jpg


?? Real?

I wonder if that would be possible with a cuttle... Maybe someone should try daggling a shrimp above their tank... :/

?? Real?
I don't know, but I hope it is -- that would be AWESOME! I suppose it's not since larger squid aren't normally hanging out right at the surface, unless I'm mistaken.

I've seen some cool video of cuttlefish stretching out to grab food (actually I probably have it in our Video Gallery).

While we're on the subject, I am wondering if this is real or a photoshop job -- any thoughts?

http://www.break.com/index/octopus1.html

It's real and has been extensively dealt with, actually, in this forum :grin:

I'll try and look up the thread in question.

:cheers:


Olaf

Cool -- I'll be looking forward to that!

There you go! (http://www.tonmo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3784)

Awesome! Thanks!

To clear up any confusion whatsoever, there is no such thing as a tree octopus.

:oops: There isn't?!? :cry:

Hey, maybe we should start a captive breeding program for tree octopuses. I have three acres, I will volunteer an acre to devote to their habitat. :grin:

Could I in turn volunteer my two square miles of lake habitat for fresh water squid (http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/i/squid/)?

Apparently that is real. I'd never seen it before until today but htere is a discussion about it somewhere else in the forums!

Apparently that is real. I'd never seen it before until today but htere is a discussion about it somewhere else in the forums!

Er, at least the time I brought it up, I put it in "culture and entertainment" not "physiology and biology" because I am deeply skeptical. Not that I really know any more than anyone else, though.

Considering it appears on the Fiction (http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/c/fiction/?offset=6) section of the website... :wink: (wait, I can't tell which 'is that real?' we're referring to anymore... )

That brings up an interesting question.... why havent squids/octos made the transition to fresh water? (Well, I suppose most marine things dont make it to fresh water either.)
If snails can do it, it cant just be a mollusc thing.

This has been discussed in a couple of threads - this one (http://www.tonmo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5825&highlight=fresh+water) talks about the biochemistry of fresh-/saltwater animals a little, here's another (http://www.tonmo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3673&highlight=fresh+water) about the closest modern cephs have got to fresh water (as far as we know :goofysca: ), and, um, here's (http://www.geocities.com/capedrevenger/freshwateroctopus.html) one of the other supposed freshwater-octo-report-threads.

That's not photoshopped, it's perfectly normal O. Vulgaris behavior.

{EDIT: I'm yapping about the movie of the vulgaris, not the tree octopus.}

On a research expedition in Costa Rica in 2000, we were collecting any cephalopods we could find to build data on basic ecology so the fisheries (octopuseries?) could be managed. I found a large (head was about grapefruit sized) O. mimus that eluded capture for 6 or 7 breatholds (we were in 10' of water, on snorkel) Again and again that darn octopus would blast me with ink, The octo would turn black, fade to brown while jetting a mere 3-5' away and BAM! As soon as it landed on the bottom it's camoflauge was so convincing the octopus would simply disappear on the reef, even though she was right there in plain sight, watching me looking searching around frustratedly. -The trick is to look for the eyes.

Cheers, Cephjedi

Awesome clip! Imagine being able to turn your very body into an exact copy of the background. :bugout: It looked like some sort of sea weed or algae it was mimicking, but i wonder if it could do the same with "foreign" objects. An Oc must be quite used to sea weed, it knows what it looks like, feels like and how it moves in the current. But say you put the li'l guy next to a plastic bag or a piece of cloth? Could they turn themselves into anything, or do they have a set of "basic disguises" like rock, sea weed and sand?
Maybe, if you put an Oc in a pool with checkerboard-patterned walls and scared it, it would become full of squares?
Cheers!
Erik