# Todays "Holy Shit, Nature is Stranger than Fiction" Entry
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [August 14, 2011, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725 "2011-08-14T22:33:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2011, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725/1 "2011-08-14T22:33:23Z")
I just saw a video on the mimic octopus which was unknown to science until the 1990’s for good reason. It has instant morphing capability and can take on the form of many other dangerous sea creatures in a way few have ever seen before. It transforms itself using a thought process I don’t even want to contemplate. I knew the bastards are really smart but I didn’t know some of them have superpowers. The last example of it running like I bird across the sea floor is freaky.
[http://www.thatvideosite.com/video/mimic\_octopus](http://www.thatvideosite.com/video/mimic_octopus)
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### Author:  [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2011, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725/2 "2011-08-14T23:45:48Z")
That is so cool! I jest love cephlopods! People think it’s weird that my favorite animals are cuttlefish and octopuses.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2011, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725/3 "2011-08-14T23:51:36Z")
Also, it does a \*hilarious \*Carol Channing.
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### Author:  [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2011, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725/4 "2011-08-15T00:05:12Z")
That is nuts! Wow!
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### Author:  [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2011, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725/5 "2011-08-15T00:12:05Z")
I am _so_ glad you’re back, Eve.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2011, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725/6 "2011-08-15T00:35:40Z")
Guess who’s been tagged to host the 2012 Academy Awards?
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### Author:  [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725/7 "2011-08-15T02:27:40Z")
Damn nature u scary!
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### Author:  [@punch\_line\_loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/punch_line_loser)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2011, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725/8 "2011-08-15T02:33:46Z")
My favorite is when it shows a couple of bizarre shapes and the narrator basically says, “Yeah, we don’t know what the hell this is supposed to be.”
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### Author:  [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2011, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725/9 "2011-08-15T02:46:21Z")
Do Cary Grant!
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### Author:  [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2011, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725/10 "2011-08-15T04:35:38Z")
I liked the researcher’s comment that some of the shapes are hard to identify. “It could be a piano or a fridge…”
Maybe that’s what it was going for and just needs practice! I imagine the octopi at their meetings comparing notes. “I can do an upright piano, but not a grand. The pedals are the hardest part.”
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### Author:  [@Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crown_Prince_of_Irony)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2011, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725/11 "2011-08-15T05:08:57Z")
Sure, the mimic octopus gets all the attention, with all its awesome impressions. Meanwhile, the prop octopus (scientific name Carrottoppus Gallagherensi) gets no respect from the animal comedy world. You’d think being able to squash eight watermelons at once would be worth something, but noooo.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2011, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725/12 "2011-08-15T05:34:40Z")
> [@Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](#):
>
> You’d think being able to squash eight watermelons at once would be worth something, but noooo.
[hushed narration] This is the distinctive call of the _Nautiloidis Absurdis_, which is also identified by its unmistakable arrow-through-the-mantle adaptation. [/hushed narration]
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2011, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725/13 "2011-08-15T06:00:41Z")
The “running across the sea bed” iteration was freaking me out, man. Octopussies are pretty damned cool - are they smarter than squid, or are the squid the big brains in the ocean?
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### Author:  [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2011, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725/14 "2011-08-15T06:46:29Z")
In Soviet Russia, nature mimics you!
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2011, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725/15 "2011-08-15T11:05:47Z")
[Relevant xkcd comic](http://xkcd.com/928/)
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### Author:  [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2011, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725/16 "2011-08-15T14:02:33Z")
Aw, I was going to link that.
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### Author:  [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2011, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725/17 "2011-08-15T14:10:50Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#):
>
> Octopussies are pretty damned cool - are they smarter than squid, or are the squid the big brains in the ocean?
Pulp Fiction just took a weird left turn in my head:
“Check out the big brain on Brad!”
“That’s not Brad, that’s a mimic octopus!”
“Shit, where’s that muhfuker Brad? Marvin, why didn’t you tell us there was a muhfuckin mimic octopus in here?” _blam blam blam_
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### Author:  [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2011, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725/18 "2011-08-15T17:05:33Z")
I can’t see that link, so don’t know if it’s the same one. But there was a youtube where, among other scenes, a mimic was romancing a lady, while simultaneously fighting off a rival. He presented comforting friendly colors and shape on one side of his body, while the other was presenting fighting stance and angry colors to the rival. As the three moved through the water, the sides had to switch and even rotate several times, and he never once got the wrong set-up. It was breathtaking.
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### Author:  [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2011, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725/19 "2011-08-15T17:19:27Z")
I liked this comment
> [@](#):
>
> It’s a Boggart!
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### Author:  [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-holy-shit-nature-is-stranger-than-fiction-entry/592725/20 "2011-08-15T17:23:45Z")
That’s no moon
Octupuses, man. They freak me out.
I’m not even joking, they creep me out. Eff-ing Chtulhu spawn.
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