Argonauta

Article: "At last, scientists solve the mystery of the floating octopus"

Here's a bit of news in the popular press about Argonauta and air bubbles in the shells (already known here):
As far back as Aristotle, naturalists have wondered why the females of a strange group of octopuses sport a thin, papery shell when plenty of their tentacled cousins are essentially naked, letting all their slime hang out.
Now, observations indicate the so-called Argonaut octopus uses the outer shell to trap an air bubble, allowing her to control her buoyancy in open water and move along with ease.
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To determine how female argonauts used their shells to capture air from the surface beforediving deeper in the ocean, Julian Finn, the study's lead author and a researcher at the Museum Victoria in Australia, went scuba diving with three female argonauts, caught unintentionally in Japanese fishing nets. (Male argonauts and immature females do not have shells.)
 

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