Posted by How could I have missed this one? Yesterday was World Octopus Day, so here’s an infographic about these amazing creatures, and, in an amazing example of tool use, a quick video of an octopus collecting halves of coconut shells to use as a shelter.
Tool use implies that the octopus needs to think logically and in the abstract, both of which are evidence of intelligence. This is no surprise to octopus researchers, although I doubt that these cephalopods will be appearing on talk shows any time soon (or perhaps that’s just further evidence of their intelligence ;-)).
And a few of our favourite past posts about the octopus:
- Incredible octopus camouflage skills
- Antarctic octopus modifies its own RNA to optimise function of its potassium channels for the cold environment
- video of an octopus opening jars to get at food it sees inside
[Feature image: Octopus vulgaris (common octopus). Image by albert kok, licensed under GNU FDL]
Biodiversity Revolution 