Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Stop hitting yourself!

Aimless rumination alert.

Cephalopods are the smartest invertebreates, I've heard. They also have a number of long and dexterous tentacles. The octopus has eight arms, of course. And the mouth is in the center of these arms, separate from the rest of the head. To me this sounds like it takes a lot of coordination. A skill they have to acquire so their weird anatomy will be an advantage.

2 comments:

susan said...

Earlier in the winter I read a wonderful article about the intelligence of octopi. Since I'd considered using some of the information for a blog post of my own I'd bookmarked the page.

Naturally, I can't remember which book it was but a few years ago someone had cephalopods as natural star ship pilots in ships filled with water. Cool idea.

Ben said...

I have to admit that I'm not out there looking for an alien's kiss, which doesn't mean that said alien isn't a catch. Still, yeah, it's very hard not to be fascinated with such odd and inhuman creatures that nevertheless have developed minds. And yeah, the idea of having them be pilots does make sense.