Marine Scientists Reveal Secret Life of Forgotten Larger Pacific Striped Octopus
by Sci-news staff
An ongoing study led by two San Francisco Bay Area scientists, Dr Roy Caldwell of the University of California, Berkeley, and Dr Richard Ross of the California Academy of Sciences’ Steinhart Aquarium, sheds some light on long-ignored octopus species – the Larger Pacific Striped Octopus.
“The Larger Pacific Striped Octopus is the most beautiful octopus I have ever seen,” Dr Caldwell said.
The Larger Pacific Striped Octopus displays striking color and shape changes, shifting in an instant from a nondescript dark reddish black ‘leaf,’ to an awesome clash of white and black stripes over constellations of white spots.
Besides coloration, what makes this species so different from other octopuses is the way it seems to ignore what has become the standard story of octopus social structures, mating and motherhood.
Instead of living a solitary life, and coming together briefly for mating like almost all other octopuses, the Larger Pacific Striped Octopus can cohabitate in pairs, sometimes sharing the same den. Groups are reported to live in associations of 40 or more animals…
(read more: Sci-news)
(photos: Richard Ross and Roy Caldwell)
A Comet to Hit Mars in 2014?
A recently discovered comet will make an uncomfortably-close planetary flyby next year — but this time it’s not Earth that’s in the cosmic crosshairs.
Come on, wouldn’t this be awesome? Could be a bummer for Curiosity and Opportunity though… Read more
Whom might you see when our sea otter exhibit opens March 23? Check out “Countdown to Cuteness” on Facebook to find out. You just might win!
Deep Sea Hermit Crabs (Pylopagurus discoidalis), family Paguridae, This species has never before been photographed alive. Seen here occupying tusk shells, and riding a sea cucumber.
Learn more about the study of these creatures: NMNH
[Photo courtesy of Barry Brown]
You had me at “riding a sea cucumber.”
Where does our head come from?
A research group at the Sars Centre in Bergen has shed new light on the evolutionary origin of the head. In a study published in the journal PLoS Biology they show that in a simple, brainless sea anemone, the same genes that control head development in higher animals regulate the development of the front end of the swimming larvae.
In many animals, the brain is located in a specific structure, the head, together with sensory organs and often together with the mouth. However, there are even more distantly related animals, which have a nervous system, but no brain, like sea anemones and corals.
In this study a research group led by Fabian Rentzsch used the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis to find out if one of the ends of the sea anemone corresponds to the head of higher animals. To do this they studied the function of genes that control head development in higher animals during the embryonic development of the starlet sea anemone.
“Despite looking completely different, it has become clear over the last decade, that all animals have a similar repertoire of genes, including those that are required to make the head of higher animals”, says first author and PhD-student Chiara Sinigaglia.
