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garrick92	19469.  Mon May 09, 2005 10:59 am You're quite right -- gastropods they are. What a dildo I am. Kindly ignore everything I have typed while I crawl away to die of embarrassment.
Gray	19483.  Mon May 09, 2005 11:23 am Nice work, though, and I don't see why we can't save it under C for Cupid (seeing as we have that statue of Not-Eros as a question too).
eggshaped	19496.  Mon May 09, 2005 11:50 am What about C for Copulation? There must be enough material in the animal world for a full series. Then again, there is the watershed…
Jenny	19544.  Mon May 09, 2005 3:46 pm Cupid is satisfactorily pre-watershed.
Jenny	19552.  Mon May 09, 2005 3:55 pm Another interesting thing about snails is that they have green blood due to haemocyanin (contains copper rather than iron). http://www.anu.edu.au/BoZo/backwell4/mollusca.htm On that same link - more QI stuff about cephalopods: Quote: Predatory carnivores. Prey caught in arms (suckers); horny beak-like jaws first, then radula. Many = poison in salivary glands. Octopus mainly eat crabs and clams. Squid eat mainly fish and anything else they can catch. They have large, lobed brains with millions of nerve cells in a cartilage cranium (brain case). Largest of all invertebrates. Chemoreceptors and machano-receptors on tentacles = feel and "taste" well. They don’t hear but good vision. Convergent evolution with vertebrate eye: Iris, retina, cornea, lens. They can control the amount of light that enters their eyes (we can’t), they can focus, see colour, and visual acuity greater than ours cause retina is of much finer structure. Ink sac in some : opens into the rectum, contains sepia intermixed with mucous. Not blocking view, works as "dummy" I didn't know some octopi were poisonous. I love the idea that they can taste their food with their tentacles. And I particularly like the idea that some of them fart their ink at people from whom they are trying to escape, though possibly my amusement at this latter is due to my childish sense of humour.
Gray	19573.  Mon May 09, 2005 4:40 pm Quote: They can control the amount of light that enters their eyes (we can’t) Isn't that what our irises are for? If the suggestion is that we can't do it 'involuntarily', which is correct, then it remains to be seen whether the cephalopods have 'voluntary control' (which must be impossible to know, surely).
eggshaped	19704.  Tue May 10, 2005 2:17 pm A cephalopod who is the master of disguise… Quote: The clever creature is a brown octopus about two feet (60 centimeters) long that slithers along the muddy bottom of shallow, tropical estuaries where rivers spill into the sea. It was discovered so recently that it still doesn't have a scientific name, but scientists are intrigued by its uncanny ability to impersonate lion fish, soles, and banded sea snakes. Octopuses are thought to be one of the most intelligent invertebrates and can change the color and texture of their skin to blend in with rocks, algae, or coral to avoid predators. But until now, an octopus with the ability to actually assume the appearance of another animal had never been observed. Mimicry is a fairly common survival strategy in nature. Certain flies, for example, assume the black and yellow stripes of bees as a warning to potential predators. But the adaptable octopus is the first known species that can assume multiple guises. Each of the nine specimens that scientists saw during research dives off the coasts of Sulawesi and Bali in Indonesia impersonated more than one toxic species. The creatures they routinely mimicked were: • Sole fish. To take on the appearance of flat and poisonous sole fish abundant in the habitat, the octopus builds up speed through jet propulsion and draws all of its arms together to form a leaf-shaped wedge. It then undulates in the manner of a swimming flat fish. • Lion fish. Just above the seafloor the octopus swims with its arms spread wide and trailing from its body, mimicking the lion fish and its poisonous fins. • Sea snakes. Changing its color to imitate the yellow and black bands of the toxic sea snake, the octopus threads six of its arms into a hole and waves the other two arms in opposite directions so they look like two snakes. The researchers think the octopus also may be able to impersonate other sea creatures such as sand anemones, stingrays, mantis shrimp, and jellyfish. For now, however, the scientists will only say for sure that the octopus can mimic sole, lion fish, and sea snakes. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/09/0920_octopusmimic.html
Gray	25166.  Wed Sep 28, 2005 2:44 pm Giant squid caught on film ABC News Aljazeera (with a picture...)
Caradoc	25174.  Wed Sep 28, 2005 5:01 pm I like the Aljazeera picture with the finger to show actual size

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