Half-Squid, Half-Octopus Discovered Off of Hawaii 170
Otter writes "A unique creature that's been dubbed an 'octosquid' with eight arms and a squid-like mantle, was discovered off Hawaii. The creature, of a previously unknown species, was trapped in the net covering a 3,000 foot-deep intake tube for the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority. From the article: 'The octosquid was pulled to the surface, along with three rattail fish and half a dozen satellite jellyfish, and stayed alive for three days. According to War, the lab usually checks its filters once a month, but this time, it put a plankton net in one of the filters and checked it two weeks later. The pitch-black conditions at 3,000 feet below sea level are unfamiliar to most but riveting to scientists who have had the opportunity to submerge. The sea floor is full of loose sediment, big boulders and rocks, and a lot of mucuslike things floating in the water, which are usually specimens that died at the surface and drifted to the bottom.'"
Half squid, half octopus (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Half squid, half octopus (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Half squid, half octopus (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Half squid, half octopus (Score:5, Funny)
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What I want to know is: when it was caught, did it shout "It's a trap!" ?
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Taningia danae (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh and hey Otter [slashdot.org]! What's up dude? I actually had no idea these guys were in Kona. Had that been known, I would have visited last time I was there [utah.edu].
Re:Octosquid is here (Score:5, Funny)
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Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
Now it's dead. Good job guys. (Score:2)
Re:Octosquid is here (Score:5, Funny)
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"Oops. Dropped that scalpel on it. Guess I'll have to finish the dissection."
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Were they dangerous, too?
I don't know what it would do to the ecosystem if we had armed and dangerous squids running around.
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Natural (Score:4, Funny)
We need patent reform! (Score:4, Funny)
That way, scientists will be able to patent valuable genes in our half-squid/half-octopus brethern, as opposed to killing them to protect their trade secrets
Stupid Name (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, it looks a lot like a weird Japanese sex toy.
Re:Stupid Name (Score:5, Insightful)
how can anyone ?!? .... (Score:2)
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Re:Stupid Name (Score:5, Funny)
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OMG! An old one! (Score:3, Funny)
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Damnit (Score:4, Funny)
It moved! (Score:2)
mine (Score:1)
You just know trhat they wanted (Score:2)
But.... (Score:4, Funny)
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Imagine (Score:3, Funny)
And no it does not run Linux, even though is has base 8.
And it would sure fuck with the iphone's multi-touch interface.
Woo! I love it! (Score:5, Funny)
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Neon Meate Dream Of A Octafish (Score:4, Informative)
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Title is wrong (Score:5, Interesting)
Squids and octopuses are far too far apart to breed.
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I usually feel it best to read the fucking article before commenting on the fucking article, so I don't look like an ignorant retard.
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In the words of the immortal Sergeant Hulka... (Score:1)
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Anyway, always wondered what the hell they were.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_cricket [wikipedia.org]
They love drainpipes, sheds and dark basements. They are quite spider-like and get rather big and nasty looking. But there's no way they wove webs - those were probably left by nursery-web spiders, or something else of similar size and morphology to those cave crickets.
Could be worse though. Thankfully, you'll never see ones like these in your mom's basement:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camel_spid [wikipedia.org]
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Re:Title is wrong (Score:4, Interesting)
They do not weave webs, that I am aware of, and the particular species that infests my house do not chirp. Furthermore, they move very differently from most large spiders - they rarely move more than a foot without hopping at least some, and they can hop about two feet maximum. In a somewhat interesting(in an evolutionary sense) instinct, they often hop towards motion, which combined with their tendency to lie completely still afterward, presumably throws off cave predators better than hopping away.
Oh, dear. (Score:5, Funny)
I'll miss you guys.
Re:Oh, dear. (Score:5, Informative)
Well, I hate to mention this, but if you're serious, don't look up Vampyroteuthis infernalis [wikipedia.org]. Like this one from Hawaii, which looks somewhat similar, it is a deep red color and lives in the deep sea. Vampyroteuthis is also known as the "vampire squid" [tolweb.org], it shares traits of both squid and octopods (another similarity), and its body is (wait for it) described as having "the consistency of a jellyfish". So, it sounds rather close to the "jellysquidfishapus" you imagine in your nightmares. Sorry. It looks like it exists already. If it's any consolation, it's small (max. 13cm long).
Re:Oh, dear. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh, dear. (Score:5, Funny)
"Maybe he was dictating?"
"Oh, shut up."
Re:Oh, dear. (Score:5, Funny)
The wiki says it was discovered by "German teuthologist Carl Chun"
"teuthologist Carl Chun"?
It took the anagram server about 0.1 seconds to come up with 'Cthulhu great colonist' from that one. So you might want to take those nightmares a little more seriously, mate.
(That or Cthulhu Scrotal Toeing which hints at truly blasphemous levels of hentai...)
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Fear not, the capture and killing of a young yogsoth is all part of the great old ones plan.
Who cares how it came to be... (Score:3, Funny)
Plan 10! (Score:4, Funny)
You are interested in the unknown... the mysterious. The unexplainable. That is why you are here. And now, for the first time, we are bringing to you, the full story of what happened on that fateful day. We are bringing you all the evidence, based only on the secret testimony, of the miserable souls, who survived this terrifying ordeal.
The incidents, the places. My friend, we cannot keep this a secret any longer. Let us punish the guilty. Let us reward the innocent. My friend, can your heart stand the shocking facts of octosquids from the deep ocean?
Another photo (Score:5, Informative)
Holy Shit! (Score:4, Funny)
This has got to be the worst nightmare of every sexy, busty teenage green- or pink-haired schoolgirl, ninja, and swordswoman in Japan!
GMD
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GMD
--
Please stop with the "I know I'll be modded down for this..." crap
half squid, half octopus... (Score:2, Funny)
They have also discovered an "animal" (Score:1, Interesting)
"We have one starfish-like creature that we can't even get the phylum (a primary division in the animal kingdom)," he said. "We've just labeled it 'animal.'"
...and It's red because... (Score:5, Informative)
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These creatures are red, because red light wavelengths don't penetrate to the bottom of the ocean, which means that these creatures appear black (black is after all, an absence of colour). The issue of synthesizing black pigment is irrelevant. Most creatures are transparent, and use photophors or bioluminescence to generate colour. Watch a David Attenborough program sometime (The Blue Planet Ep2 The Deep)
Some predators even use red bioluminescence to illuminate red pre
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That it's red indicates that it at least part of the time comes up to shallower depths where at least some sunlight penetrates. "Shallow" being a quite relative term, of course.
Octsquidman (Score:2)
8 arms??? (Score:5, Funny)
I hate to get into the technobabble nonsense, but I think they're called tentacles (or testicles, if you're a pretty, French foreign-exchange student).
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+1 Fitting Movie Reference [imdb.com]
You're wrong (Score:2, Informative)
So arms and tentacles are not interchangeble references.
I found all this from a simple google of the differnces between squids and octopi. You might want to do the same
Iä Iä Cthulhu Ftagh'n Iä Iä (Score:2, Funny)
Squidopus (Score:1, Redundant)
ugh, idiots.
There goes another evolutionary opportunity. (Score:2)
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I was really drunk in Hawaii a year ago... (Score:5, Funny)
Oh shit.
life imitating cartoons (Score:3, Funny)
Re:life imitating cartoons (Score:4, Informative)
I'm ashamed that I know that.
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Please turn in your nerd glasses and funky keyboard at the door, and sign over your low UID (preferably to me...)
Squidopus... (Score:2)
Half Octopus Half squid (Score:1)
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The SuperCaliquishy.
Squidtopus? Octosquid? (Score:1)
Proof of the liberal agenda (Score:1)
OH MY GOD! HUMOCTOSQUIDIAN WAS IN MY FIREFOX SPELL CHECK! HOW LONG HAVE THEY BEEN PLANNING THIS? TINFOIL! I NEED TINFOIL!
poor creature (Score:1)
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I too weep if this is the last of the species...
We'll never know what it tastes like... I think a nice garlic butter with some nice hot red peppers and olive oil would be the best way to cook it...
Nephilium...
B.I.O.C. (Score:1)
Pictures... Need Pictures (Score:1)
Squidward! (Score:1)
Evolution theory triumphs again. (Score:2)
Unsurprisingly it develops similar characteristics that makes it more fit for survival.
Darwin would be thrilled me thinks.
Missing tag... (Score:2)
typical (Score:2)
Mr Mstigoteuthis, I don't care how clever you are, you can at least wait until you know what it is before claiming you own it, tentatically or otherwise.
Manwhale to the Rescue (Score:2)
Paging Mr Schneier, Mr Schneier? (Score:2)
I for one... (Score:2)
Re:Conversation overheard in a Squid bar (Score:2)
SQ #2: Yeah, I hear they have hands like an octo
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