octosquid found

dragon · Post by **dragon** » 2007-07-06 09:55am

half octopus/half squid.

HONOLULU -- Scientists at the University of Hawaii at Manoa will soon have a chance to investigate a creature that appears to be half squid, half octopus that was found in waters off the Big Island.

It appears that the creature was sucked up in a deep seawater pipeline at the Natural Energy Laboratory Hawaii Authority at Keahole on the Big Island.

The pipeline pumps cold water up from 3,000 feet below sea level. Occasionally deep-sea marine life will get caught in a filter in the line, officials said.

Workers call the latest find an "octosquid." It has the body of a squid and the tentacles of an octopus.

It is being shipped to University of Hawaii Manoa campus for closer evaluation.

link

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2007-07-06 12:28pm

It's a beauty

Zixinus · Post by **Zixinus** » 2007-07-06 01:03pm

Is it alive?

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2007-07-06 02:12pm

Half-breed?

Tanasinn · Post by **Tanasinn** » 2007-07-06 02:15pm

I, for one, welcome our new tentacled overlords.

Turin · Post by **Turin** » 2007-07-06 03:00pm

LadyTevar wrote:Half-breed?

Squid and octopus aren't very closely related. Squid are order Teuthida and Octopus are order Octopedia (sp?). That would be like a half-breed between a human and a aardvark. I'm not going to say impossible, but...

Turin · Post by **Turin** » 2007-07-06 03:11pm

Tanasinn wrote:I, for one, welcome our new tentacled overlords.

<sigh>

"New overlords" aside. Just to add to my previous comment, while such a cross-breed really is impossible, it does probably show a really interesting sort of convergent evolution. If you have two species that have the same environmental needs, they can start evolving towards similar morphologies even though they are widely separated by history. Like the whales and their fish-like shapes.

Coop D'etat · Post by **Coop D'etat** » 2007-07-06 07:46pm

That thing looks pretty cool.

Once they test that thing's DNA it shouldn't be hard to tell if it is a squid-like octopus or a octopus-like squid.

Solauren · Post by **Solauren** » 2007-07-06 07:50pm

Or if it just looks like them and is actually unrelated....

Hey, weirder stuff has come out of the see.

Maybe it's a baby Cthulthu.....

Superman · Post by **Superman** » 2007-07-06 07:55pm

Now for some wasabi...

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2007-07-06 08:17pm

Superman wrote:Now for some wasabi...

Right on...I can't watch a nature program and help but think "What does that taste like?".

Most squid and octopus are delicious, too, so...

Tasoth · Post by **Tasoth** » 2007-07-06 08:26pm

If it's a squid, it'd be nifty to see if it crawls acrossed the bottom or not. Probably does looking at the tentacles though.

Astarial · Post by **Astarial** » 2007-07-06 08:29pm

Turin wrote:If you have two species that have the same environmental needs, they can start evolving towards similar morphologies even though they are widely separated by history.

That's really really cool, that two distinct species could evolve to be... what.. one? Subspecies of some "tentacle monster" species? If different species are determined by the ability to breed and create (fertile?) offspring... would the creation of such an offspring mean that they're not separate species anymore?

Lord Zentei · Post by **Lord Zentei** » 2007-07-06 08:40pm

Astarial wrote:
Turin wrote:If you have two species that have the same environmental needs, they can start evolving towards similar morphologies even though they are widely separated by history.
That's really really cool, that two distinct species could evolve to be... what.. one? Subspecies of some "tentacle monster" species? If different species are determined by the ability to breed and create (fertile?) offspring... would the creation of such an offspring mean that they're not separate species anymore?

They would look similar, but the very different genomes would mean that they could not interbreed, hence by definition, they would be different species. As an analogy, salt and sugar may look alike, but they're very different chemically. In short, there can be multiple ways to acheive a given morphology.

Coop D'etat · Post by **Coop D'etat** » 2007-07-06 08:43pm

Astarial wrote:
Turin wrote:If you have two species that have the same environmental needs, they can start evolving towards similar morphologies even though they are widely separated by history.
That's really really cool, that two distinct species could evolve to be... what.. one? Subspecies of some "tentacle monster" species? If different species are determined by the ability to breed and create (fertile?) offspring... would the creation of such an offspring mean that they're not separate species anymore?

By covergent evolution two species may come to resemble each other more and more, but it is practically imposible for two completely separate species to become interbredable again. That would require the two to evolve a very similar genetic code, rather than similar gross morphological structure. The likelihood of that happening to a complex organism is so incredably statistically improbable to be essentially imposible.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2007-07-06 09:50pm

Gentlemen, we are witnessing the next stage in the development of Japanese tentacle porn anime.

phred · Post by **phred** » 2007-07-06 10:29pm

its so cute

Tasoth wrote:If it's a squid, it'd be nifty to see if it crawls across the bottom or not. Probably does looking at the tentacles though.

even more interesting is whether or not it crawls across the pan when you fry it up, like squid.

Ritterin Sophia · Post by **Ritterin Sophia** » 2007-07-06 11:29pm

For more on convergent evolution.
Gharial

False Gharial

Ritterin Sophia · Post by **Ritterin Sophia** » 2007-07-06 11:30pm

Solauren wrote:Maybe it's a baby Cthulthu.....

Darth Wong wrote:Gentlemen, we are witnessing the next stage in the development of Japanese tentacle porn anime.

I'm not seeing a difference here...

Tasoth · Post by **Tasoth** » 2007-07-07 12:07am

General Schatten wrote: I'm not seeing a difference here...

An infant cthulhu will make your sanity disappear faster then a line of coke infront of Paris Hilton.

Tentacle porn you can watch. If you're into that kinda thing.

Astarial · Post by **Astarial** » 2007-07-07 01:03am

Coop D'etat wrote:
Astarial wrote:
Turin wrote:If you have two species that have the same environmental needs, they can start evolving towards similar morphologies even though they are widely separated by history.
That's really really cool, that two distinct species could evolve to be... what.. one? Subspecies of some "tentacle monster" species? If different species are determined by the ability to breed and create (fertile?) offspring... would the creation of such an offspring mean that they're not separate species anymore?
By covergent evolution two species may come to resemble each other more and more, but it is practically imposible for two completely separate species to become interbredable again. That would require the two to evolve a very similar genetic code, rather than similar gross morphological structure. The likelihood of that happening to a complex organism is so incredably statistically improbable to be essentially imposible.

Then how did the Octosquid come to be?

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2007-07-07 01:41am

General Schatten wrote:For more on convergent evolution.
Gharial
http://www.madrascrocodilebank.org/imag ... harial.jpg
False Gharial
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/s ... medium.jpg

Not so remarkable, as they're both crocodilians anyway.

A better example would be ichtysaurus and a dolphin. Or Dolph Lundgren and a cyborg dolphin, but I digress.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2007-07-07 02:00am

Astarial wrote:Then how did the Octosquid come to be?

A new species of mollusk never crossed your mind?

It's not as if we've completely cataloged every living creature you'd find in a fresh salad, let alone in the depths of the ocean.

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2007-07-07 02:15am

It's also possible that this is just a mutated squid.

Astarial · Post by **Astarial** » 2007-07-07 11:58am

Howedar wrote:
Astarial wrote:Then how did the Octosquid come to be?
A new species of mollusk never crossed your mind?

It's not as if we've completely cataloged every living creature you'd find in a fresh salad, let alone in the depths of the ocean.

No, not really, since the OP said "half octopus/half squid."

It's one thing for it to be a previously uncatalogued species, and another for it to be a cross.