#pelagic octopus

[e-quarium]

༄.°⋆｡˚ A female Paper Nautilus (Argonaut) riding on the bell of a jellyfish !!

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Amazing footage of the extremely rare Glass Octopus (Vitreledonella richardi) filmed 651m (2135 ft) beneath the waves near the Phoenix Islands Archipelago.

Glass Octopus reach 11 cm (4.3 in) in mantle length; 45 cm (18 in) including tentacles.

This species is very rarely encountered and is considered one of the least studied cephalopods.

Most information scientists have managed to get is from specimens found in stomachs of predators.

It gets its name from ability to be almost completely transparent.

At end of this clip, its chromatophores (cells that produce color for camouflage, seen here as yellow dots) can be seen.

The only aspects of that are not clear are optic nerve, eyeballs, and digestive tract.

Its eyes are elongated and appear almost rectangular from the side — with lens at one end, retina at other.

This helps stealth: From below, they cast much smaller shadow than half-globe eyes of other octopuses. The eyes point upwards to gather residual daylight.

It is a pelagic octopus, swimming through the ocean far above the sea floor.

While little is known about its overall numbers in wild, the IUCN lists it as Species of Least Concern due to its apparent wide distribution across the entire globe’s tropical and subtropical waters.

schmidtocean.org

[ninalevy]

Grimpoteuthis: Dumbo Octopus: The subject of our younger son’s science report last week. I think there was a Power Point involved. After five minutes of googling, I gather that there are 13 species within this genus of “pelagic umbrella octopuses” who vary in appearance, but all have the Dumboish fins/ears. And, yes, apparently it is “Octopuses” and not “Octopi”...a word I have been mispluralizing for my entire life. Octopus is not Latin in origin, but rather Greek. Which would make it “Octopodes” in the plural. But the standard English plural is -“puses” Or so I just read. My son is not terribly interested in this plural debate. And he told me I made the Dumbo unrealistically colorful, which is a definite possibility.