Perspective belies the fact that this is evidently just a Common Octopus ( Octopus vulgaris ).
Photo was taken near Reggio Calabria in the Mediterranean Sea, by Guerino Salvatore.
Such alien creatures… I like them though. They seem like they would be alright if we could communicate. 🐙
They’re quite intelligent like the other cephalopods in general (squid, cuttlefish, nautiloids like my avatar), but live short lives, maybe 3-5yrs or so. They have blue blood (no iron, like us) and three hearts, and are pretty ingenious problem solvers.
I didn’t know they were blue blooded like our horseshoe crab friends.
I do recall an experiment involving a cute cuttlefish and a maze and it was a pretty smart squiggly thing. I like their camo, crazy eyes, and just that they sound like cuddle fish. 😁
I didn’t know they were blue blooded like our horseshoe crab friends.
Yah, both have copper-based blood, which turns extra-blue when carrying oxygen. Interestingly, the copper-clad Statue of Liberty rusts green with the oxygen reaction, but I guess it’s a different chemical reaction going on there…
I like their camo, crazy eyes
Indeed,
cuttlefish(whoops, mantis shrimp) have the most advanced eyes of any life-form on planet Earth. No doubt worth a future info post!Did some quick reading on blue blood. These critters have hemocyanins instead of hemoglobin. It’s a pretty ring shape from above and has a funky looking tube structure from the side.
It’s colorless until exposed to oxygen, which makes it turn blue. It lives outside of the cells of the blood, in the hemolymph itself, unlike hemoglobin. It only carries a fourth of the oxygen hemoglobin does, but it is still the second most common type of oxygen transporting molecule.
