Coolest underwater animal ever.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Of course I must stand by the colossal squid (and giant squid), but there are so very many other cool critters underwater.

For sheer personality, the manatee.
For unimaginable flexibility and trickiness, the mimic octopus.
For its alien-ness, the deep-sea tubeworm that lives at hydrothermal vents (they breathe hydrogen sulfide!).
For creepiness, the deep sea angler.
For tiny things that makes a lot of beauty, marine phosphoresence. There’s nothing like taking out the rowboat and seeing a glowing trail in the water behind you, and glowing swirls where you dip the oars… magnificent.

22

Here’s a challenge to all dopers [the prize is one free virtual octopus hug] – what is the correct plural of “octopus”?

:slight_smile:

23

Octopodes.

Frank, that damn mimic octopus is the goddamn coolest thing I have ever seen. It tops even the cuttlefish’s ability. If you want to see what *Max was talking about, there’s a special that shows up on the Science Channel every so often called “Ultimate Octopus” (IIRC) that has some excellent footage of what cuttlefish can do with their skin colors.

24

Are you joking me?

That is freaking COOL!

25

When I tried to google obapinia, I got nada! Anybody got any links?

26

He he - almost right. :wink: “Octopodes” is the correct form because the word is borrowed from Greek - but very few acually use it.

Only a tiny percentage of people actually use “octopodes” (one is tempted to say, “insufferable intellectual show-offs”:stuck_out_tongue: ). The rest are split between “octopi” and “octopuses”.

Now, “octopi” simply cannot be correct - that ending is only used to pluralize words originally borrowed from Latin. Octopus is borrowed from Greek. “Octopi” is the least correct of the three, only used by those who would like to be “insufferable intellectual show-offs” but who lack the real goods to do so successfully … [though it shows up in dictionaries.]

Here is an article I managed to find on this very topic:

http://www.aquarium.org/upwelling/upwelling32.htm

“The word octopi is the least correct of our options. That usage mistakes the “us” on the end of octopus as a Latin suffix, and applies a Latin plural to it. But you really shouldn’t put a Latin plural on the end of a Greek root—that’s like sprinkling cayenne pepper on your cotton candy. Some things just aren’t meant to go together.”

My mouses are all cheering in their little hice over the rationality of English. :smiley:

27

I really have no reason to call anyone a liar…but I am really having trouble wrapping my head around the idea that an octopus will climb out of his cage and run around on the floor, climb into other cages, unplug things, etc. Can they breathe air? Are they just “holding their breath” (I know thats not exactly what they’re doing, but you know what I mean) until they get back into water?

Can a skeptic get some proof?
Thanks, and no offense intended to anyone.

28

I have heard two variations of this story before.

When my dad was working years ago at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Wood’s Hole, I heard from a grad student the following story:

"I was working on [a rare type of fish, can’t remember name], and there was a tank of them in the Aquarium in the lab.

One day, I noticed one of the fish was missing. I went over the notes, no question - one was just gone.

The next day, another was missing. I was getting pissed off.

The next day, another gone - I was getting alarmed. So, I arranged with the staff to stay the night in the aquarium and confront the nocturnal thief.

I hid behind a large tank, and when the main lights went out there was still enough light filtering from various places to see the following bizzare event:

The tank next to the [rare fish] tank held a large octopus. As soon as the guard locked the door, a tenticle reached out and unlatched the top lid of the tank. The octopus then crawled out of the tank, and into the [rare fish] tank, where it gobbled another fish.

Its meal over, it crawled back into its own tank - and latched the lid over itself, where it rested, looking innocent.

The next day, the “disappearing fish” problem was solved by the simple expedient of putting a paddlock on the octopus tank."

Another version of the same story appeared in a National Geographic Special on Octopuses.

Either this is a relatively common occurance, or it is a laboratory urban myth.

29

Dammit. Something that’s that too cool to be true always is.

30

What no mention of the Leafy Sea Dragon? It’s too weird to not be cool!

http://www.divegallery.com/Leafy_Sea_Dragon_wallpaper_1.htm

31

Okay, Octopi are now officially my favorite sea creatures. My previous candidate, The Dread Cthulhu (sorry man) are now out of the running. :smiley:

32

A friend of mine works for the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, and the Shedd recently went through its accreditation inspection. They passed with flying colors, but in the letter the Shedd’s president sent out to congratulate employees, he noted: “The only other minor concern regarded our animal-escape protocol. They advised us to include the giant Pacific octopus and the cetaceans. (Perhaps we’re underestimating our clever Kayavak!)”

I thought that was great-- an animal escape protocol for the octopus. And the need for a protocol indicates that octopodes will go meandering, given the opportunity.

33

I’m partial to the platypus, although I’m not sure it would qualify as underwater, because it isn’t ALWAYS under water.

34

Oh, it’s definitely cool. Along with the rest of the various sea horses. But is it the coolest?

35

Hey, maybe it is true – I simply don’t know.

It is a well-known fact that octopuses can crawl out of water (at least some species) when they want to - some even make their living crawling from one tidal pool to another, to find prey and escape predators. I saw a cool video of one octopus chasing another in and out of the water in this way.

Also, octopuses are very intelligent - freakishly so for an invertibrate.

36

Leafy Sea Dragons are pretty cool. I saw some at the Shedd Aquarium last week and felt the urge to take some home with me.

But they still aren’t as awesome as coelacanths.

37

I like horseshoe crabs. I particularly like contemplating the fact that they looked just like horseshoe crabs 250 million years ago, and will probably still look like horseshoe crabs long after we’re gone.

38

I’m partial tothis squid. It’s beautiful!!

StG

39

I too read the article in National Geographic on octopodes (dang it, I’m going to be saying “octopodes” for the rest of my life–that’s a really cool word). It ran back in about 1996 or so. The cool fact that most sticks with me is that they’re so, uh, rubbery(?) that if a hole in a pane of glass is big enough for the beak to get through, it’s big enough for the whole critter to ooze through as well.

40

And by the way, my vote goes not to an underwater creature, but it’s an amphibian. I can’t remember what it’s called, darn it, but it’s a pink salamander of some kind that looks exactly like a human penis with legs. It is hilarious.

And no, I don’t mean geoducks; this is a walking-around salamander. Unfortunately, Googling salamander looks like penis turns out to be an unproductive, somewhat Dante-esque journey through the Web’s dark underbelly.