Alphapus
Posted by Ross Rosenberg
Since 2000, over 2000 scientists from 82 nations have been hard at work, going door to door, clipboard in hand conducting the first Census of Marine Life. Eight years into it, fascinating new discoveries have been made, one of which focuses on this little fellow, Megaleledone setebos, which lives in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica and can grow up to one meter in length.
This particular cephalopod is now thought to be the common ancestor of the first deep-sea octopuses. Dr Jan Strugnell, a biologist at Queen’s University Belfast recently headed a study which compared the genes of various octopuses and incorporated fossil records finally concluding that the first divergence from Megaleledone occurred roughly 30 million years ago.
The census continues even as I write this, and is scheduled to be completed by 2010, more than enough time to find R’lyeh.
Octopuses share ‘living ancestor’ [BBC News] : Thanks to Hans and Bibi!
Categories: Animals, Cephalopods, Octopus, Science
Posted at 10:45 am on November 11, 2008
6 Comments -
Quite benign and meditative, yes?
Don’t let it fool you. It feeds off your low self-esteem, insecurities, and envy.
Comment by El Tiburo — November 11, 2008 @ 5:49 pm
The articles don’t say so, but one assumes that the non-deep-ocean octopi, the ones that are more familiar to us, have a different ancestry than the ones that originated near Antarctica. If I understand what I’m reading, the non-deep ones have the ink ability and the deep ones (the ones from Antarctica) can’t ink. This is worth knowing. It suggests that deep-ocean species evolve near the poles, then spread around the planet. Like Eliza, they’re already adapted to the dark and the cold.
Comment by Mogo The Mugger — November 11, 2008 @ 9:02 pm
By the way, I like Jessica. That’s her, over on the right. I like plump women. The hair patch on the face is a bit off-putting, however.
Comment by Mogo The Mugger — November 11, 2008 @ 9:03 pm
“Megaleledone setebos”
Setebos? Oh shi-
Comment by Kingfisher — November 12, 2008 @ 3:09 am
Calm. Pure elegance. Nature has some kickass designers.
Comment by Optical — November 12, 2008 @ 4:06 am
OCTOBEE! All it needs is black & yellow stripees.
Comment by Evil Jim — November 14, 2008 @ 8:05 am