Octopus bimaculoides,commonly known as California two-spot octopus due to the blue eye spots.Credit- Tom Kleindinst/Marine Biological Laboratory (http://www.mbl.edu/blog/smart-cephalopods-trade-off-genome-evolution-for-rna-editing/)
My mom always used to say, the bigger the head, the bigger the brain. Suggesting that big headed people were smarter, because they had big well-developed brains in their cranial cavity. These word resonates with me, when i think about cephalopods.
As their name indicates ,derived from greek words kephalē for head, and podos, foot ,Cephalopods have their well developed head fused with their modified foot/arms of tentacles. The largest class of invertebrates included octopuses, devilfish, nautiluses,cuttlefish and squids. In the marine ecosystem, they serve as vital predators.
Here on this blog ,I would be showcasing the Octopus.The distinguishing features of the Octopus that is commonly known is the lack of a shell and the number of modified foot (eight tentacles),but as time goes on we would dive into the world of these magnificent animals.
O. bimaculoides,commonly known as California two-spot octopus based on the presence of blue eye spots below their eye.It belongs to the phylum Mollusca,Class Cephalopoda, Subclass Coleoidea and Order Octopoda.This octopus is found on the southern coast of California ,Santa Barbara stretching to San Quintin,Mexico. (Forsythe,J.W (1988))
Fun Fact of the day
Members of the Coleoidea have ink glands that produce sepia, a melanin containing pigment, stored in their ink sacs. As a defense mechanism, they release a cloud of ink and escape,when threatened .
Joke of the day
How does an octopus go to war? Well-armed!
REFERENCE:
DIANA KENNEY(2017) Smart” Cephalopods Trade Off Genome Evolution for Prolific RNA Editing,, The Marine Biological Laboratory at http://www.mbl.edu/blog/smart-cephalopods-trade-off-genome-evolution-for-rna-editing/
Forsythe,J.W & Hanlon, R.T.(1988) Effect of temperature on laboratory growth, reproduction and life span of Octopus bimaculoides.,Marine Biology, Volume 98, Issue 3, pp 369–379.Viewed on 1/26/2018 at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF0039111
Liscovitch-Brauer et al (2017) Trade-off between transcriptome plasticity and genome evolution in cephalopods.Cell DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.03.025