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A House For An Octopus
By nikkita | December 15, 2009
Apparently the octopus is pretty clever.
Sydney – Octopuses, sometimes called the slugs of the sea, are much brighter than we thought, Australian researchers said Tuesday. They filmed veined octopuses in Indonesia carrying and stacking coconut shells to be used later as armour to protect them from predators.
Julian Finn and his Museum of Victoria colleague Mark Norman were astonished when they came upon a first instance of an invertebrate using tools.
“The first time I saw it, I just about drowned,” Finn told the Sun Herald newspaper. “This was the first recorded tool use by an invertebrate, and what it shows is that it’s not a skill just limited to humans and apes.”
It comes as surprise to me that this would come as surprise to someone else. I mean, the octopus has 8 legs and well, that’s 4 times the opportunity to do something interesting. Maybe my imagination is getting the best of me, but I’m pretty sure I’ve read some equally amazing stories about octopuses in the past year. Then again, maybe I’m just thinking of Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus…. As you were, scientists.
[EarthTimes via TreeHugger]
Topics: Fierce, Video, science, simplify | No Comments »
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