Tool use observed in octopi

[Mayabird]

There's nothing special about humans. I believe it's New Caledonian crows (Amy, who I am pretty sure told me this, can confirm it) who have been known to engage in targeted revenge actions against humans (they're also actually capable of more object-task discernment than many primates). For that matter, so have Elephants. Young male elephants who lose their mothers to human action will frequently wreck villages for spite and stand in the middle of the highway to block traffic in Africa.

Crows in general, actually. For instance, the grad students at the University of Washington now always catch crows for research while wearing giant fake wigs and masks because back when they didn't, they'd find themselves being harassed by crows everywhere they went for years. New Caledonian crows are the ones known for making tools, though.

[CaptainChewbacca]

How are octopuses able to survive out of the water? And why don't they like astroturf?

An octopus can survive as long as it stays moist, so if its moving from one tank to another it's fine.

Sweet, thanks. Gotta see them again.... the squibbon

I LOVE THE SQUIBBON! I actually wrote a scifi story involving a massive war between parallel dimensions. On one side was a merciless borg-like race called the Onslaught, and on the other was a technologically advanced but nonviolent race of evolved squibbons. It was great fun.

[Coalition]

Also a lot of stories talk about a video of the event or a security cam taping the culprit. So again for that to happen and the video not making it to youtube is again such a low probabiliy that it is almost non-existant.

Actually, the goal would be to get enough of those videos, put them together, set it to the Hogan's Heroes theme song, and post that to Youtube.

[Norseman]

Octopi is plural. Octopus is singular. The way you're using these terms suggests that you think it's the reverse.

To use octopi as the plural of octopus is to show your ignorance of three languages.

EDIT: Ack sorry for the necro, not really awake today

[Molyneux]

Octopi is plural. Octopus is singular. The way you're using these terms suggests that you think it's the reverse.

To use octopi as the plural of octopus is to show your ignorance of three languages.

EDIT: Ack sorry for the necro, not really awake today

Well, the last post was less than half a month ago...I'm not sure whether that counts as a necro or not.

I had always heard that "octopi" and "octopuses" were equally valid, and that only "octopodes" was grammatically incorrect. Merriam-Webster agrees with me, but according to Oxford you appear to be correct.

[General Trelane (Retired)]

Octopi is plural. Octopus is singular. The way you're using these terms suggests that you think it's the reverse.

To use octopi as the plural of octopus is to show your ignorance of three languages.

EDIT: Ack sorry for the necro, not really awake today

Well, the last post was less than half a month ago...I'm not sure whether that counts as a necro or not.

I had always heard that "octopi" and "octopuses" were equally valid, and that only "octopodes" was grammatically incorrect. Merriam-Webster agrees with me, but according to Oxford you appear to be correct.

I, too, don't think that was a necro.

English is built on the borrowing, stealing, and violating of words from many other languages, so while "octopi" may be incorrect to the linguistic pedants, it is perfectly fine for the rest of us (especially those of us who speak English but not Greek nor Latin).

[Mayabird]

How about we all stop the quibbling about nitpicking linguistics unless we happen to be Duckie, or I will start calling them octopodians? Or even worse, octopedestrians?

So...tool use.

[Spoonist]

To use octopi as the plural of octopus is to show your ignorance of three languages.

If you want to be a grammar nazi at least you could do is check if you got it correct first and, you know, that it was not already covered in the thread you resurrected.
Now, it does not matter if its origin is from an old misconception as long as its used by enough people for it to, you know, get into the dictionaries.

So...tool use.

Tool use it is. I find it strange that the old definition of tool use was ever considered a sign of a higher level of intelligence since even ants do that. I mean they even have argiculture and herding, but it is so selective and non-adaptive that its sign as a higher intelligence is far fetched.

With the modern definition of tool creation/adaption we come much closer to the concept of intelligence.

[Molyneux]

To use octopi as the plural of octopus is to show your ignorance of three languages.

If you want to be a grammar nazi at least you could do is check if you got it correct first and, you know, that it was not already covered in the thread you resurrected.
Now, it does not matter if its origin is from an old misconception as long as its used by enough people for it to, you know, get into the dictionaries.

So...tool use.

Tool use it is. I find it strange that the old definition of tool use was ever considered a sign of a higher level of intelligence since even ants do that. I mean they even have argiculture and herding, but it is so selective and non-adaptive that its sign as a higher intelligence is far fetched.

With the modern definition of tool creation/adaption we come much closer to the concept of intelligence.

I tend to think that learned tool use (emphasis on the learning part) is a good indicator of intelligence, as well - a pity that it's unlikely to be occurring in this case.

[Sarevok]

Is there any hope for a real tool using octopi or have they passed their time ? I remember seeing the Documentary the Future is Wild on discovery that shows a future Earth after humans left for the stars. There the next sentient species on Earth was tool using land dwelling octopi. My biggest objection was the octopi had a huge amounts of time to do something with their brain power. Yet they did nothing compared to what early ancestors of humans did in short amount of time relatively speaking. So why would they ever learn to focus on superior thinking as their primary advantage ?

[aieeegrunt]

Well for one thing if they spend too much time out of the water say learning to make fire we either eat them or run them over with our cars, so that would have to wait for humanity to be out of the picture.

[Cykeisme]

Perhaps in the hypothetical scenario posited by the documentary, some selective pressures came about that forced the octopus race to get smarter.

[Shroom Man 777]

Is there any hope for a real tool using octopi or have they passed their time ? I remember seeing the Documentary the Future is Wild on discovery that shows a future Earth after humans left for the stars. There the next sentient species on Earth was tool using land dwelling octopi. My biggest objection was the octopi had a huge amounts of time to do something with their brain power. Yet they did nothing compared to what early ancestors of humans did in short amount of time relatively speaking. So why would they ever learn to focus on superior thinking as their primary advantage ?

Massive environmental change? The dinosaurs were roughly coexistent with protomammals, yet during the mass extinction in the Triassics, the Archosaurs ended up inheriting the Earth and as we all know, after the Archosaurs the mammals then took over.

You can't really say they "did nothing". When something occurs that allows the octopus to take over, by that time they wouldn't even be octopuses - or at least they'd have as much in common with octopuses as the dinosaurs did with reptiles, or the birds did with reptiles. They'll be a whole new kind off creature altogether. Just like how the mammals who "did nothing" during the Mesozoic period ended up turning into Neanderthals and Mastadons that took over afterwards and ate everything on Earth.

But it's kinda weird. It's not like sea-dwelling invertebrates can quickly go up to land and adapt themselves to living there. It's not even like how land-living reptiles or mammals adapted themselves to aquatic or marine life, since going from crocodiles and hippos to mosasaurs and whales is way "simpler" than an invertebrate mollusk surviving dry land. They'd have to develop a whole new respiratory system! They have to learn to breathe air, whereas aquatic/marine reptiles or mammals didn't face the inconvenience of going from air-breathing to water-breathing.

Aside from their limbs and brain power, the octopuses will face the same challenges as the primitive sea creatures that crawled up to live on land. We know it took the fishies a looooong time to turn into amphibians and other critters that fully adapted to living on land.