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I hypothesize that glib humankind devolved from the truly brilliant octopus. The octopus will be affirmed in its dominant evolutionary foresight, for remaining in the ocean, when the polar ice caps melt and the land masses are history.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8408233.stm
Can they tolerate acidity?
We saw an Octopus in a tank at the new sealife centre at Alton Towers (it's very good, as it goes.)  This prompted Jay to remember an anecdote she had been told at a  lecture, regarding the mysterious disappearance of fish from a closed tank in a marine biology centre.

One by one the fish disappeared.

A camera was set up in the lab to record the happenings at night.

Midnight!  The camera waits... nothing stirs.  And then... the lid of...... the Octopus Tank lifts up!  One octopus eye peers out......  followed by the rest of the octopus.  Slitherslithery across the floor.... one skinny tentacle lifts up the lid of the fish tank....  Splosh.

Contented silence.

After a while, a rather fatter octopus appears over the side of the fishtank - puts the lid back on the tank! - and is back in his own in no time at all.
I'm impressed - by both stories. I think we have serious competition there.


Am reminded of the Hitchhikers Guide quote

man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much -- the wheel, New York, wars and so on -- whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man -- for precisely the same reasons."
Damn clever, these cephalopods.
The Oxford Octopus has been sacked for Over-Indulgence.
Did they release him [I hope] ?
Yes, but it cost six squid to set him free!



enters self for best appropriate use of the Squid Joke
You suckered Asy inkto that one.
BTW, your pic is of a heptopus.



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