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.
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.
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. 😁
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…
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.