Sort of an interesting story for those who like octopuses (and please don't correct me...it is NOT octopi. Octopus is frequently given a Latin plural, yet the word derives its second root from Greek, not Latin). I for one, am a big fan of these fascinating animals. For a short while I worked in the invertebrate exhibit at the National Zoo in DC and got to hang out with the octopuses there. They are brilliant animals. For mollusks, anyway.
And here is an interesting story about two types of octopus that can tuck up six of their arms while running on the other two. They can use their other six arms to disguise themselves from predators, either as rolling coconuts or clumps of floating algae.
This discovery, published in Friday's issue of the journal Science, discredits theories that walking requires hard bones and skeletal muscle, as octopuses have neither.
Very cool.
1. Here are the links for video of the octopuses walking:
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050321/multimedia/050321-14-m2.html
and
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050321/multimedia/050321-14-m1.html
Good stuff.
Posted at 4:13PM on Jun 16th 2005 by Willy