Friday, January 8, 2010

When The Science Hits The Fan - Smart Octopus

Octopuses are smart. Yes, octopuses is the correct plural form of the word octopus. Look it up. Anyway, octopuses are much smarter than any other invertebrate. The have been shown to have short and long-term memory, can differentiate between different shapes and patterns, have the ability to learn from observing something, and they have also been known to play. Pretty good for something that doesn't have a backbone. But, what is even more impressive is that recently several veined octopuses (Amphioctopus marginatus) were filmed using tools. These octopuses will dig up discared coconut shells, clean them out, drag them considerable distances, and then use them for shelter. Watch.


Pretty cool.


5 comments:

Kelly said...

That is very cool!

Francy said...

That was cool. I like how the guy on the video referred to humans as "super monkeys." Gee, I wonder what his views are on evolution!

melanie said...

Did you recently change your sidebar to say 'wife of a police officer' or has it been that way for a while and I just now noticed it?

Elaine said...

Melanie- You are observant. I just changed it yesterday.

Christina said...

That's so crazy...I watched this with Eliana and she leaned forward and said,"What's he doin'?!" Pretty funny. It makes me think of some of the crazy things that you see in sci-fi movies. I wonder if the people who come up with that stuff watch a lot of this kind of thing.