![Cover of UN book on cephalopods [150x212, 16K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_070330_UNcephalopods.jpg "CEPHALOPODS OF THE WORLD, AN ANNOTATED AND ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE OF CEPHALOPOD SPECIES KNOWN TO DATE")
While browsing through the PBS website for the Kings of Camouflage, I came across a link to a free UN document of cephalopods. It is available in a manner similar to the sea turtle anatomy book PDF. However, it is produced by the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, so it’s emphasis is more on cephalopods as a fishery. Still, there is a lot of great info and illustrations in there. And it appears that educators can reproduce and distribute the information freely as long as they provide proper attribution.
Cephalopods of the World
www.fao.org/docrep/009/a0150e/a0150e00.htm
…free downloads of illustrated fact sheets on nearly every living cephalopod.
There are similar documents available on other marine organisms too:
[via TONMO]![PBS NOVA Kings of Camouflage, Cuttlefish [200x150, 7.6K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_070329_PBScuttlefish.jpg "PBS NOVAL: Kings of Camouflage")
PBS airs another oceanic special, this time on cuttlefish. My tentacles are tingling!
Cuttlefish: The Brainy Bunch by Kaufmann Productions
a film by Gisela Kaufmann & Carsten Orlt
Premiers Tuesday, April 3 at 8 pm
Join NOVA on a voyage beneath the waves, where you’ll discover a bizarre, alien-like creature like no other. It’s an animal with eight sucker-covered arms growing out of its head, three hearts pumping its blue-green blood, and a doughnut-shaped brain. It has the ability to change its color and shape to blend in with seaweed and rocks, and it has a knack for switching on electrifying light shows that dazzle its prey. Perhaps most surprising of all, this animal is quite intelligent, with a highly complex brain. In this program, underwater cameras capture the extraordinary, transformative powers of the cuttlefish.
I am thinking of hosting a webcast/Skypecast during this program. Would anyone be interested in joining a simultaneous conversation while the show is airing?
Continue reading ‘PBS Special on Cuttlefish, Tuesday, April 3 at 8 pm’
![Origami squid made from a 20 dollar bill [200x150, 12K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_070321_origamisquid.jpg "Origami squid made from $20US")
Had a birthday recently. My aunt, ever the crafty lady, gave me a nifty little gift. Instead of merely including the cash in the birthday card (note, that’s Caulerpa algae on the cover), she folded it into an origami squid for me. Thanks!
Continue reading ‘Birthday Origami Money Squid’
![Asperoteuthis acanthoderma, squid [200x150, 8K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_070227_Mote_Asperoteuth.jpg "Asperoteuthis acanthoderma squid, courtesy of Mote Marine Laboratory")
A Mote scientist received an unidentified floating object (U-FL-O?) last week. It was a squid found at the surface by a sharp-eyed fishing captain southwest of Key West last Tuesday. The story made the news and now there are some updates. There is still a chance it is a new species but all the major characteristics point towards Asperoteuthis acanthoderma.
A. acanthoderma reaches a rather large size. The largest specimen known has a mantle length of 78 cm and long, slender tentacles. In one squid (45 cm ML) the tentacles were over 12 times longer than the mantle (i.e., about 5.5 m) (Tsuchiya and Okutani, 1993). The most distinctive feature of this species is the presence of very small, pointed cartilagenous tubercules over the surface of the head, mantle and arms.
The really interesting thing is that if this is A. acanthoderma, then it may be the first time it has been documented in the Atlantic Ocean. Up until now, all specimens have been found deep in the Pacific. So where has this one been hiding? How did it get here? Many mysteries remain.
We’ve witnessed the appearance of large cephalopods in our parking lots before. Now it appears other sea creatures are coming ashore to take our spaces.
Stumbled upon the Glass Jellyfish, a photo album over at PangalacticTrading.com. They are pictures of the works of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka. It reminds me a of the delicate glass rotifer sculptures at the American Museum of Natural History.
The second half of the 19th century was a time of great scientific discovery. New museums were being built throughout the world and many existing private museums were opening to the public. New galleries were designed to display the expanding array of known living plants and animals. For many groups of animals this was easily done…But what about soft bodied animals such as jellyfish and sea anemones? Examples of these animals could be pickled in spirit to preserve them, but this in no way reflected their extraordinary appearance in life. Their colours quickly faded and their shapes became distorted as the tissues shrank. Papier-mâché and wax models could not capture their translucence and transparency. Leopold Blaschka, a brilliant glassworker and amateur naturalist, devised a solution to this problem - vividly recreating these life forms modelling them in glass.
Some folks know St. Christopher as the patron saint of travelers. It is not uncommon to keep a small icon of him in a car for safe transit. My own little Honda has a slightly leggier talisman watching over us. Some might discount the putative protective power of cephalopods. But from this account in Panabasis, the Journal of the Janus Museum, you can clearly see there is precedence for their benevolence :).
Very pleased to announce a major museum acquisition, Ex Voto Pulpo, a contemporary anonymous painting on a steel sheet. For those not familiar with the term, an ex voto is a thanks offering to the Virgin or to a saint. Many, like our acquisition, commemorate a miraculous intervention. This particular ex voto is personally gratifying because it shows a cephalopod in a very sympathetic light - the octopus is saving the chap in the boat, you see, and not attacking him - its stern expression is a look of steely determination, rather than anger….
It’s always dolphins that get credited with epimeletic1 behavior. Clearly there is a need to also consider the beneficence of octopuses as well.
(Via ponto, who has also documented recent less charitable encounters between certain Felis sp. and Architeuthis dux)
![SeaScope Aquatic Activities from LaMER [200x150, 12K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_061226a.gif)
Continuing with our tour of supplementary material made available by your local Sea Grant College Program, we turn to Louisana’s Marine Education Resource Center. Their SeaScope Aquatic Activities section offers the following PDF handouts for free:
SeaScope activity folios are written by teachers for teachers. They use the video microscope nicknamed “Scope-On-A-Rope” (SOAR) in science lessons on aquatic organisms.
- - -
An interactive virtual squid dissection demo is available from another site, Froguts.com.
In May, 2001, 5th graders at Lunalilo School dissected a squid and posted a video documentary of their experience.
![Link to the Balaenateuthia page (DB) [200x150, 12K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_061223a_db.gif)
Daniel Bensen is a scientific illustrator who, along with his cohorts, dares to ask the question:
What if the Chicxulub bolide had missed the Earth?
Some of the weirdest animals on Spec are the balaenateuths or baleen-squids, a diverse group of flippered cephalopods with highly modified tentacles. They range in size from small, mesopelagic gems to immense filter-feeding giants. Absolutely nothing like them exists or has ever existed on Home-Earth.
As with squid and cuttlefish, balaenateuths possess ten tentacles, two of which are greatly elongated and whiplike. The whips terminate in a cluster of finger-like appendages (giving rise to the term “digibrachia” or finger-arms) that are partially retracted into chambers beneath the mantle when not in use. Six arms are shorter, more conventional-looking tentacles that may be equipped with rows of suckers or hooks. The last two arms, one on the top and one on the bottom, are greatly broadened and often internally reinforced with calcite or cartilage. Only capable of vertical motion, they superficially resemble a set of vertebrate jaws and are sometimes referred to as “gnathobrachia” or jaw-arms.
![Link to the Grand Baleen-squid , Megacalamari grandis (DB) [200x150, 12K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_061223b_db.jpg)
It seems to follow in the footsteps of Dougal Dixon, whose books New Dinosaur and After Man I cherished as a child and still thumb through to this day. A more recent approach was undertaken by Discovery Communications.
Much, much more can be found at The Speculative Dinosaur Project. Be sure to also read up on:
Strangely, all updates from Daniel’s site seem to end circa 2005. Anyone know what’s up with that?
Mark Isaak’s delightful site gathers together evidence of the perverse humor that lurks within many taxonomists.
Scientific names of organisms are not usually known for their entertainment value. They are indispensable for clarity in communication, but most people skip over them with barely a glance. Here I collect those names that are worth a second look.
A mere sampling of this trove of wonders:
- Abra cadabra (Eames & Wilkins) 1957 (clam) Now, alas, in the genus Theora.
- Aha ha Menke, 1988 (sphecid)
- Ittibittium Houbrick, 1993 (mollusc) These are smaller than molluscs of the genus Bittium.
- Notnops, Taintnops, Tisentnops Platnick, 1994 (caponiid spiders) These Chilean spiders were originally placed in the genus Nops, but Platnick separated them into these new genera when he reexamined them.
- Ptomaspis, Dikenaspis, Ariaspis (Devonian armored jawless fish) Remove the “-aspis” to see the pun.
- Vini vidivici Steadman & Zarriello, 1987 (a recently extinct parrot from the Marquesas Islands) The genus Vini has been in use since 1831.
I am sure it’s in there somewhere, but one of my favorites is the Jackknife fish (Equetus lanceolatus). There is also the recent classification of several slime-mold beetles named after Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld and another beetle after Darth Vader. Of course some folks argue that a little less frivolity and a little more serious abstraction is needed in regards to classification.
See also:
UPDATE: This just in from the folks over at TONMO:
The scientific name for the wonderpus is Wonderpus photogenicus From work that will soon be published by Hochberg, Norman, Finn.
Some are calling it a Cephalopodmas miracle :):
More info from the source.
Discussion over at TONMO.com.
Nice commentary from Broken Type the last time we had giant squid fever.
Every time a giant squid turns up, thousands of people link to it from their weblogs, or forward it to their friends along with a calamari joke.
See also Alex’s latest melancholic thoughts.
UPDATE: You can now see the commemorative T-shirt to go along with this momentous event.
![Gibbous Cephalopodmas! [300x300, 16K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/cephalopodmas.gif)
Be on the look out for Santa Jaws!
“Don’t forget! Cephalopodmas falls on December 22nd by the human calendar! Get your special squamous someone something fetid!”
On the thirteenth day of Cephalopodmas,
Cthulhu gave to me
Thirteen Hapalochlaena,
Twelve ink sacs squirting,
Eleven Architeuthis,
Ten ammonites,
Nine tentacles strangling,
Vampyroteuthis infernalis,
Seven photophores a-flashing,
Six arms a-flaying,
Grimpoteuthis,
Four snapping beaks,
Three suckers,
Two cuttlefish,
And Histioteuthis heteropsis.
More lyrics…
Caitlin R. Kiernan
Worldwide celebrations
UPDATE: I am assuming that this post by PZ Myers is the origin of the celebration of Cephalopodmas. Some one please correct me if I am wrong. As to the origins of cephalopodmas.org, I was able to confirm that it was started by Glenn Peters:
Short story short-ish: someone on Caitlin R. Kiernan’s journal mentioned cephalopodmas….I was amused by the idea…so I whipped up a quick website, and Caitlin wrote a carol for it.
UPDATE: It looks like the folks in Bump Town know how to prepare for Cephalopodmas! (via squid.us)
![Link to Amazon [150x200, 12K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_061220a.gif)
A couple months ago, I picked up a reprint of The Whale Book
by Adriaen Coenen (1585) at my local indie bookstore.
In the late 16th century, Dutch beachcomber Adriaen Coenen scanned the beaches of Holland for interesting marine material and produced several illustrated manuscripts of his findings, covering anything from the commonplace herring to the exotic moonfish. Coenen’s work contains the earliest European pictures of whales, naïve but easily identifiable, which makes it a rare visual and textual source for the natural world of his day.
![Link to Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB) [150x200, 12K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_061220b_kb.gif)
You can thumb through a detailed, Flash-based facsimile over at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (click on Blader in het Visboek). Reading the commentary in the reprint, it’s interesting seeing the transition from medieval murk to rational enlightenment. Today technology makes the oceans less opaque to exploration, but back then most knowledge came from whatever rot washed up on the shore. Consequently, it was easy to get a distorted vision of what many sea creatures really looked like.
![Link to National Diet Library [200x150, 12K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_061220c_ndl.gif)
It is also interesting to compare the European naturalist’s depictions to those from Japan. Over at Pink Tentacle, they link to the works of Kurimoto Tanshuu (1756 - 1834), who sketched wildlife during the Edo period. Japan’s National Diet Library makes hi-res scans available of these original works.
Coenen and Tanshuu worked some 200 hundred years apart and both seemed to take some liberty with their depictions. But Tanshuu’s skill and level of detail is compelling. Be sure to check out the comments on Metafilter for some translations of the Diet website.
Published in Uncategorized
.
via Pink Tentacle
I hope this is more realistic than stylized and that they sell cool T-shirts to go along with the attraction.
…on July 18, a group of Hakodate residents made an official announcement regarding plans to create a giant robotic squid for the city.
Members of the group include university professors specializing in robotic engineering, who will work to incorporate cutting-edge technology that will allow the robot to be controlled remotely via the Internet.
…the entire body of squid robot will be covered in lights that blink as the robot moves. In addition, the robot will be equipped with a set of wireless receivers and will have its own homepage featuring a set of controls that allow remote users to move the robot’s tentacles and eyes.
The developers plan for the robot to stand 5 meters (16 feet) in height. After an intial 1.5-meter prototype is completed this November, work will begin on the larger final version, which the group aims to unveil in a parade at the Hakodate Port Festival in the summer of 2007.
The total cost of the robot is expected to be somewhere in the 30 million yen range (US$250,000).
![Homemade iPod cozy shaped like a squid [4K, 80x60]](http://cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_060727.jpg "Homemade iPod cozy shaped like a squid")
via random Flickr browsing
Geesh, so clever. Should of thunk of this myself. It’s an iPod cozy shaped like a squid. Wish they were for sale.
![Link to the Grand Baleen-squid , Megacalamari grandis (DB) [200x150, 12K]](http://www.bowdoin.edu/~dbensen/Spec/SDsquid.jpg)
Jason Robertshaw
Cephaloblog Comments
PharaohFracking AntsPharaohFracking AntsPharaohFracking Ants