International Cephalopod Awareness Day

8 October 2007

AKA, World Octopus Day, Squid Appreciation Day, Squid Day To You
cephalopodcast.com/octopusday

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What are cephalopods?

Ceph·a·lo·pods are marine mollusks like squid, octopus and cuttlefish, characterized by well-developed eyes and sucker-bearing tentacles. The word is from the combination of the Greek kefale and pous, roughly meaning head feet. Some folks pronouce it sefalopod, others say kefalopod.

Why October 8?

Cephalopods include the octopus, which have eight arms, and the squid, which have eight arms and two tentacles (8+2=10). October is the tenth month. A further discussion of the merits of the date were brought up in the comments over on Pharyngula. The original discussion of the date took place on TONMO.com.

Why Celebrate?

The links below are a pretty good indication of the popularity of cephalopods on the Internets. People are engrossed by the seeming alien intelligence of these marine invertebrates and their remarkable abilities. But despite our familiarity with them, both for food and fascination, remarkably little is know about even the most common species.

In spite of the large number of studies and research carried out on cephalopods, especially in recent decades, the life history of the majority of species is still unknown, and our knowledge of the life cycles of the members of this interesting class remains fragmentary. Information comes from studies in the field as well as from observations in the laboratory. However, little is known of life history for species that are not targets of regular fisheries, and only a handful of cephalopod species have been reared successfully in the laboratory.

From, Cephalopods of the World, a free UN FAO illustrated fact sheet on nearly every livingcephalopod.

So there is still a great deal to learn from these creatures. Follow the links below to fill in some of the gaps.

The Cephalopod Aware

If you have an ICAD post that you would like to include, let me know. Email pulpodcast [at] gmail . com. Thanks!

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