4 ms·

The Argonaut Octopus Has Mastered the Free Ride

80 points by zdw 2y ago

kaonwarb 2y ago
Nature never ceases to amaze in inventiveness: > The tiny males never develop a shell, but instead develop a modified arm that he can detach onto a female's mantle to pass along his sperm. This arm can move on its own, wriggling toward the very center of the spiraling shell. This led certain researchers to mistake these lone male arms for "some form of a parasite or worm living inside the female," Villanueva said. A female argonaut can store a handful of these male arms until she is ready to spawn.
- walterbell 2y ago
  > handful of arms Well done.
- delichon 2y ago
  > females weigh up to 600 times as much as males But Guinness won't come knocking: > Males [of the blanket octopus] are the size of a walnut, can be up to 40,000 times lighter than the female -- https://octonation.com/fun-facts-about-the-female-blanket-octopus/ https://octonation.com/fun-facts-about-the-female-blanket-oc...
  - Baeocystin 2y ago
    Neat. Those genuinely were fun facts!
emporas 2y ago
> "Plastic has already become a new substrate used by argonauts in the Anthropocene era to navigate in surface ocean waters, illustrating the urgent need to reduce plastic pollution in the ocean" Plastic has enclosures in it's shape, contrary to other material found floating, like branches and wood. Enclosures are great for not getting detected and eaten, and there are octopi which use coconuts for hiding themselves. I don't know if plastic pollution has proven to be detrimental to aquatic organisms though. Talking about everyday plastic items, like bags, bottles and stuff. Plastic pollution in beaches is definitely an ugly view to the eyes, but i don't know if animals actually die from plastic pollution. In my mind, fishing lines thrown out in the sea, are a lot more dangerous because they are designed to be very strong, invisible and they stretch for hundreds of meters. These are proven to trap by accident turtles and dolphins.
- sitharus 2y ago
  Plastic pollution is very well established as killing marine animals and birds. Obviously as you stated abandoned fishing line and nets - which are plastic - trap and entangle many larger animals. Fishing gear is the biggest source of plastic pollution away from the shoreline. But plastics are also ingested by animals - both filter feeders that just don’t discriminate their food and predators that mistake the colours for that of prey. Plastics do not break down in digestive systems, instead plastics can leech toxins, displace nutritional intake causing starvation, cause internal bleeding, or in some cases tangles up inside and forms a blockage leading to sepsis and death. Recent peer-reviewed research focussing on marine birds: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38900-z https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38900-z And one for corals: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06113-5 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06113-5 Here’s one example in the news: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/11/health/sperm-whale-plastic-waste-trnd/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/11/health/sperm-whale-plasti... We don’t know the full extent. Most animals that die at see are never seen let alone autopsied.
  - 0xEF 2y ago
    Thanks for these links, for all the good they might do. I think my favorite part about the impact of the "micro plastics everywhere" debate is, just like with climate change, you have a massive number of people who will deny any harm is being done simply because they can't immediately see any effect from where they are standing. Soon we will be calling them Plastic Deniers or whatever. It's wild to me that half the global population is so remarkably good at reflexively, and without any critical thinking, reject the idea that we may have made a bit of a mistake with our consumer cultures that is going to have long term ecological fallout, leaving the rest of us to wait until it's too late to reverse or even fix the problem. It's like arguing with a real life philosophical zombie.
    - krisoft 2y ago
      > for all the good they might do. > It's like arguing with a real life philosophical zombie. It is equally unpleasant to hear you argue with opinions not stated in the comments. Almost as if you are picking a fight nobody as of yet is provoking you to pick. And the phrase "philosophical zombies" don't mean what you seem to think it means. > It's wild to me that half the global population is so remarkably good at reflexively, and without any critical thinking, reject the idea... I don't see much critical thinking in this sentence of the article either: "Plastic has already become a new substrate used by argonauts in the Anthropocene era to navigate in surface ocean waters, illustrating the urgent need to reduce plastic pollution in the ocean," Why does that illustrate the urgent need?
djmips 2y ago
Please do not litter -

80 points by zdw 2y ago

Nature never ceases to amaze in inventiveness: > The tiny males never develop a shell, but instead develop a modified arm that he can detach onto a female's mantle to pass along his sperm. This arm can move on its own, wriggling toward the very center of the spiraling shell. This led certain researchers to mistake these lone male arms for "some form of a parasite or worm living inside the female," Villanueva said. A female argonaut can store a handful of these male arms until she is ready to spawn.

walterbell 2y ago
> handful of arms Well done.
delichon 2y ago
> females weigh up to 600 times as much as males But Guinness won't come knocking: > Males [of the blanket octopus] are the size of a walnut, can be up to 40,000 times lighter than the female -- https://octonation.com/fun-facts-about-the-female-blanket-octopus/ https://octonation.com/fun-facts-about-the-female-blanket-oc...
- Baeocystin 2y ago
  Neat. Those genuinely were fun facts!

emporas 2y ago

> "Plastic has already become a new substrate used by argonauts in the Anthropocene era to navigate in surface ocean waters, illustrating the urgent need to reduce plastic pollution in the ocean" Plastic has enclosures in it's shape, contrary to other material found floating, like branches and wood. Enclosures are great for not getting detected and eaten, and there are octopi which use coconuts for hiding themselves. I don't know if plastic pollution has proven to be detrimental to aquatic organisms though. Talking about everyday plastic items, like bags, bottles and stuff. Plastic pollution in beaches is definitely an ugly view to the eyes, but i don't know if animals actually die from plastic pollution. In my mind, fishing lines thrown out in the sea, are a lot more dangerous because they are designed to be very strong, invisible and they stretch for hundreds of meters. These are proven to trap by accident turtles and dolphins.

sitharus 2y ago
Plastic pollution is very well established as killing marine animals and birds. Obviously as you stated abandoned fishing line and nets - which are plastic - trap and entangle many larger animals. Fishing gear is the biggest source of plastic pollution away from the shoreline. But plastics are also ingested by animals - both filter feeders that just don’t discriminate their food and predators that mistake the colours for that of prey. Plastics do not break down in digestive systems, instead plastics can leech toxins, displace nutritional intake causing starvation, cause internal bleeding, or in some cases tangles up inside and forms a blockage leading to sepsis and death. Recent peer-reviewed research focussing on marine birds: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38900-z https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38900-z And one for corals: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06113-5 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06113-5 Here’s one example in the news: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/11/health/sperm-whale-plastic-waste-trnd/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/11/health/sperm-whale-plasti... We don’t know the full extent. Most animals that die at see are never seen let alone autopsied.
- 0xEF 2y ago
  Thanks for these links, for all the good they might do. I think my favorite part about the impact of the "micro plastics everywhere" debate is, just like with climate change, you have a massive number of people who will deny any harm is being done simply because they can't immediately see any effect from where they are standing. Soon we will be calling them Plastic Deniers or whatever. It's wild to me that half the global population is so remarkably good at reflexively, and without any critical thinking, reject the idea that we may have made a bit of a mistake with our consumer cultures that is going to have long term ecological fallout, leaving the rest of us to wait until it's too late to reverse or even fix the problem. It's like arguing with a real life philosophical zombie.
  - krisoft 2y ago
    > for all the good they might do. > It's like arguing with a real life philosophical zombie. It is equally unpleasant to hear you argue with opinions not stated in the comments. Almost as if you are picking a fight nobody as of yet is provoking you to pick. And the phrase "philosophical zombies" don't mean what you seem to think it means. > It's wild to me that half the global population is so remarkably good at reflexively, and without any critical thinking, reject the idea... I don't see much critical thinking in this sentence of the article either: "Plastic has already become a new substrate used by argonauts in the Anthropocene era to navigate in surface ocean waters, illustrating the urgent need to reduce plastic pollution in the ocean," Why does that illustrate the urgent need?

djmips 2y ago

Please do not litter -