Octopus Evades Predators by Mimicking Toxic Sea Creatures - Wired News

octobot

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Sitting here with on-line dictionary in an open window, coffee, half eaten cookie and enjoying the show (PDF). Just getting started but I had to laugh out loud when I got this far:

Crypsis and polyphenism are the most common primary defences (behaviours that decrease the predator’s chances of encountering and detecting an animal as a prey item; Edmunds, 1974) in shallow-water octopodids (hereafter referred to as octopuses; Hanlon & Messenger, 1996)
 
Yeah and the funny thins is we've started putting that disclaimer in papers because - years ago - justifiably -- a reviewer didn't like that we had used the term octopuses loosely. Did we mean members of the genus Octopus? Sensu stricto or sensu lato? What about other octopods? Deep species? Communication is all about being understood by your reader, whomever that may be.
 
I also got a laugh at reading MrModelTest and MrBayes in the middle of the explanation of how your model methodology was defined :biggrin2:

Thank you for defining this difference:
Dorsoventrally compressed swimming is an essential aspect of flatfish swimming. In form, these two modes of locomotion are smilar, but DVC does not necessarily incorporate the imitation of flatfish: the entire head and mantle may be raised rather than just the eyes, and the arms need not undulate like flatfish fins. For example, both Abdopus aculeatus (d’Orbigny, 1834) and Wunderpus photogenicus Hochberg, Norman & Finn, 2006 (Video S1) employ DVC, but not flatfish swimming.

Reading initially about flatfish swimming, I was thinking to myself, "but, but I have seen hummelincki do this in an aquarium (short armed species)" until I continued to the above difference. The lift idea for heavier animals would likely apply as the animal I observed the "flounder" look was one of the larger mantle variety (this is the strangest of the animals we commonly keep and I wish someone would study them because of the diversity in both manner and size we see).
 
Talented octopus dupes predators by impersonating fish - BBC News


[SIZE=-2]PhysOrg.com[/SIZE]

Talented octopus dupes predators by impersonating fish
[SIZE=-1]BBC News[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]The Indonesian mimic octopus has the extraordinary ability to pass itself off as many of the toxic fishes or sea ...[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Octopus Evades Predators by Mimicking Toxic Sea Creatures[SIZE=-1]Wired News[/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Astonishing Octopus Is Master of Disguise[SIZE=-1]LiveScience.com[/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Octopus mimics flatfish and flaunts it (w/ Video)[SIZE=-1]PhysOrg.com[/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]all 7 news articles[/SIZE]


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dwhatley;162252 said:
Reading initially about flatfish swimming, I was thinking to myself, "but, but I have seen hummelincki do this in an aquarium (short armed species)" until I continued to the above difference. The lift idea for heavier animals would likely apply as the animal I observed the "flounder" look was one of the larger mantle variety (this is the strangest of the animals we commonly keep and I wish someone would study them because of the diversity in both manner and size we see).

Very cool- this is definitely an area that needs more work, especially on different morphologies. In general the biomechanic limits of behavior are very poorly known for shallow water octopodids.
 
Oddly, of the four I have kept (two small females and two far larger males, three from the FL keys the fourth - female - of unknown origin) only the one male showed the flounder look and only when first introduced to the tank. Most unfortunately, I don't have a video or even a still of the posturing. I have a very young one now (but I think it will be of the smaller size) and a better camera so I will see if it shows this locomotion when placed in a larger environment. Right now it keeps solely to the rocks and is never on the sand.
 
interesting. tank size definitely impacts things. Since you have a fairly stady supply (even if stretched out over time) it would be great to try and plan a study specific to your set-up.

ok- jet lagged and off to sleep. I'll be offline for a few days...possibly until the end of Sept.
 

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