Thursday, December 17, 2009

Australian Scientists Discover Coco-nut Carrying Octopuses

Australian scientists have discovered an octopus in Indonesia that collects coconut shells for shelter - unusually sophisticated behaviour that the researchers believe is the first evidence of tool use in an invertebrate animal.
The scientists filmed the veined octopus, Amphioctopus marginatus, selecting halved coconut shells from the sea floor, emptying them out, carrying them under their bodies up to 20 metres, and assembling two shells together to make a spherical hiding spot.
Julian Finn and Mark Norman of Museum Victoria in Melbourne observed the odd activity in four of the creatures during a series of dive trips to North Sulawesi and Bali in Indonesia between 1998 and 2008. Their findings were published Tuesday in the journal Current Biology.
"I was gobsmacked," said Finn, a research biologist at the museum who specializes in cephalopods. "I mean, I've seen a lot of octopuses hiding in large sea shells, but I've never seen one that grabs it up and jogs across the sea floor to a more preferred location. I was trying hard not to laugh."
Octopuses often use foreign objects as shelter. But the scientists found the veined octopus going a step further by preparing the shells,cleaning them out,carrying them long distances and reassembling them as shelter elsewhere.
That's an example of tool use, which has never been recorded in invertebrates before, Finn said.
"What makes it different from a hermit crab is this octopus collects shells for later use, so when it's transporting it, it's not getting any protection from it," Finn said. "It's that collecting it to use it later that is unusual."
The researchers think the creatures probably once used shells in the same way. But once humans began cutting coconuts in half and discarding the shells into the ocean, the octopuses discovered an even better kind of shelter, Finn said.
The findings are significant, in that they reveal just how capable the creatures are of complex behaviour, said Simon Robson, associate professor of tropical biology at James Cook University in Townsville.
"Octopuses have always stood out as appearing to be particularly intelligent invertebrates," Robson said. "They have a fairly well-developed sense of vision and they have a fairly intelligent brain. So I think it shows the behavioural capabilities that these organisms have."
There is always debate in the scientific community about how to define tool use in the animal kingdom, Robson said. The Australian researchers defined a tool as an object carried or maintained for future use.

"It's another example where we can think about how similar humans are to the rest of the world," Robson said. "We are just a continuum of the entire planet."

The octopuses are developing more sophisticated brains and yet it seems to me we are not .We've hit a wall in our development and evolution. Perhaps on some distant day the octopuses will take control of the world if we don't obliterate the species first( which is much more likely). After all that's what we do and we do it very well.

65 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:13:00 PM

    We are beginning to find out we are not the smartest creatures here. huh, but some of us knew that a long time ago. hahaha

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  2. Anonymous9:15:00 PM

    hi
    How's your sore throat, better I hope?

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  3. Sore throat is getting better.Brian says I get them from nagging too much.

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  4. I find it hard to picture octopuses running for office.Suits,silk ties and so many pairs of shoes...HA!

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  5. Anonymous9:31:00 PM

    Who knows, we better try to step it up or there will be nothing let to run for.

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  6. Brian asked me another stupid trivia question.
    A certain 13% of the male population loves a particular thing about women.Guess what it is.

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  7. Anonymous9:32:00 PM

    Tell Brian you don't nag, it's all in the name of love.

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  8. Anonymous9:33:00 PM

    Their breasts, or is it their mind.

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  9. I nag him for his own good.Thankyou for your support on that.

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  10. Hairy legs.
    Who knew??If I had known that I wouldn't have gone through the pain of waxing.

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  11. Anonymous9:42:00 PM

    I'm would never have guess, I have to wax often I think I will skip a couple of times and see. hahaha

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  12. Anonymous9:43:00 PM

    If you didn't nag at Brian, he would think you are upset or angry.
    What we do to please a man.

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  13. When I'm angry the silence is so cold it has icicles hanging off it.

    That's when he gets that look of fear or flight.

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  14. Anonymous9:52:00 PM

    They all get that look of "what did I do" if they only new.
    Sometime I wonder do they think or just go head on without thinking.

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  15. They don't think like us.And they don't understand how we function.

    All the years we've been together and he hasn't learned a thing about me.

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  16. Anonymous9:57:00 PM

    A lady I know husband told her he worked for the bread, and he know what's best, I told her shit , she had to make and bake the damn bread so that made them equals.

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  17. Anonymous9:59:00 PM

    I don't think any man will understand women, Didn't you know their brains were put in backwards?

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  18. I don't like hairy legs on women.
    I think we should be as different from men as possible.'Vive la difference'

    I have even toyed with the idea of hairless pubes.A little laser here and there and it would look just like a baby's.

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  19. I don't think I could take waxing there.How do gals stand it when they get a bikini wax??

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  20. I didn't know that men's brains were in backwards.That explains a lot.It explains why Brian does everything ass backwards.

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  21. Anonymous10:07:00 PM

    Don't know how they can stay a bikini wax, I have always used nair hair remover.
    I don't think our men would like the choochie naked, a little fuzz on it.hahaha

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  22. The snow storm was so bad in buffalo that the cars stopping for tolls were getting stuck so all the toll keepers waved them all through.The city had to decide if they did the right thing or not...depriving the city of that income.

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  23. Anonymous10:09:00 PM

    don't you tell Brian I said that {giggles]

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  24. Better for kissing without the fuzz.

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  25. They figure our Christmas will be so white we'll have to dig our way out of the white.

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  26. Anonymous10:12:00 PM

    If they didn't wave them through , they would have a bigger problem, getting them all haul off.I think the toll keepers did the ribht thing.

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  27. Anonymous10:15:00 PM

    I'm gonna ask my man about the kissing part.
    Brian isn't going to wrok in all the snow huh?

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  28. Jakey was in a school play today.He played a Hawiian guy.He wore a Hawiian shirt and a lai but Jaye said he forgot to take off his ski pants so he was not too believable.
    But he was funny and made eveyone laugh so he was happy.

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  29. Anonymous10:17:00 PM

    I think I would fill my basement with at least 2/3 months of supplies.
    How do people get to work or where ever they have to go?

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  30. Brian dresses snugly.He doesn't feel a thing and he likes playing with his big plow.

    He likes the kissy thing.

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  31. Anonymous10:21:00 PM

    No one look at his ski pants, it's cold and swony there everyone know he was keeping warm. He can make his on cartoons for his paper, what an enterprising young man.

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  32. Anonymous10:22:00 PM

    I like your post on Jaycee, and you see how I feel about her bio dad.

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  33. We have hundreds of huge gov't plows constantly moving around the city,keeping the roads open.When it gets too much for the plows to handle we have in the past called in the army to dig us out.A couple of years ago the army had to dig Toronto out of the snow.

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  34. Anonymous10:29:00 PM

    That's the best present ya'll could get him.
    It's not complete without the kissy thing.

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  35. Anonymous10:32:00 PM

    That's nice to know you are not snowed in,which our country would look at yours or others, we could learned a thing or too, how to help each other.

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  36. Sammy's stalker has finally stopped calling and emailing him.He's very relieved.She was so persistent for about six months.
    Now my older grandson Jason( we call him Jay)has a girl stalking him she won't leave him alone.He woke up one night with her licking his neck.He doesn't know how she got in his room.I told him if he played his cards right she would cook and clean for him.

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  37. Tiger Wood's wife wants to file for divorce in California so she could get half of everything including four homes.

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  38. Anonymous10:41:00 PM

    I know Sammy is happy she's out of his hair.
    She just may cook and clean foy if he play his cards right, she may even give him a little bit off hmmmmm.

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  39. According to your comment on Jaycee you felt her bio dad was a hanger-on with ideas of fame and money.

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  40. Anonymous10:44:00 PM

    I hope she do file in California, she deserves everything she get.
    Tiger's biggest mistake was to get married, he may have kids out there, they say he didn't wear condoms.

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  41. And why is he walking around with a celeb lawyer.She would only be interested in famous, big money,career making cases.That would indicate that Bio is going to make a fuss about something.

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  42. Anonymous10:47:00 PM

    Yes I did think that, he has never met her, and didn't know anything about her until this happen. He says no man is at the ranch and he needs to go and stay there and protect her/kids. He has Gloria Allred for a lawyer. Why do he need a lawyer?

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  43. IF he didn't wear condoms he was taking huge chances with his health and his wife's.I hope she includes that fact in her suit.

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  44. Anonymous10:51:00 PM

    Gil says Allred is a pit bull and she smells money. he says Bio can always write a book or get in on the movie deals. I didn't know Bio hadn't meet Jaycee .

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  45. Bio didn't know Jaycee existed until she was abducted at eleven and the FBI came for a DNA sample.

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  46. Anonymous10:54:00 PM

    I read an article about Bio saying he was going to kill Garrido if he gets off, hell I didn't know he had never met Jaycee, I only heard about her stepfather and they talks.

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  47. Anonymous10:58:00 PM

    WTF's wrong with Bio?Everyone know what he's after. I hope Bio just get a sack of shit.
    I hate it when people try to climb up the ladder on the backs of others.

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  48. Her stepdad is an okay guy who has tried to shield the family and distract the press.He tried to answer all the reasonable questions and deflect the ones that were too personal.He has always been genuinely fond of Jaycee.He said she was a beautiful little girl and has grown into a beautiful woman.

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  49. Sadly,I think Jaycee will never recover completely.She is very bonded to that piece of shit.
    And the girls had a very weird upbringing that is very entrenched in their psyches.They say you are a completely developed character at five years old.

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  50. Anonymous11:07:00 PM

    I put a bart gif cartoon in drafts, don't know if it work. I will keep trying until I get it.

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  51. Anonymous11:09:00 PM

    I don't think she will recover completely either, and it's so sad about the girls.

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  52. I checked out your gif.It doesn't work.Some of them just won't work for some reason. Blogger is not compatible with all of them.

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  53. Anonymous11:14:00 PM

    I have an article about Garrido is scared his wife will trun against him and they both have lost weight, who the fuck cares about their health.

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  54. Anonymous11:15:00 PM

    Thanks, I will just try for funny cartoons and try some gifs from comment baby.

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  55. Anonymous11:18:00 PM

    Now you see why I can't be in public office,what come up come out.

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  56. She is going to turn state's evidence.That is the plan.Gerrido should be shaking in his shoes. She knows enough to hang him.Perhaps even about the girlfriend and baby he claimed to have killed.

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  57. Anonymous11:22:00 PM

    Maxy bout ready to go for his nightly walk. Hahaha

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  58. Anonymous11:24:00 PM

    She's going to try to save her ass and she is just as guilty as he is.
    I wonder if Jaycee will testify like Elizabeth did.

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  59. Jaycee is going to testify.
    That will probably be heart breaking to hear.I don't think I could be in that courtroom.

    I put a little video of Carl Sagan on the blog I idolized that man when I was growing up.He knew how to get children interested in the universe how to step outside the box their parents erected around them. He sure expanded my mind as a kid.

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  60. I do believe it is Maxy's time for walky, although I do not accompany him in this weather.He knows his way around.He knocks on the door when he is done.

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  61. Anonymous11:39:00 PM

    I watch the video of Carl Sagan really nice, so many thngs I have become interest in since knowing you Thankyou.

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  62. Anonymous11:40:00 PM

    Maxy is so smart, he is a child with four legs.

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  63. My pleasure PIC.
    Maybe I can even interest you in hairless pubes. I think I'll try it and report on the results.

    Farewell for now...sleep like a baby....PIC

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  64. Anonymous11:44:00 PM

    I am going to call it a night, you need to relax with a cup of tea and a little brandy, and I have an early morning.

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  65. Anonymous11:46:00 PM

    [giggles]
    Goodnite PIC you are one of a kind.
    Sleep well..Goodnite...PIC

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