All posts in Molluscs

Happy World Octopus Day!

Octopuses might not seem like the most charismatic of characters, but the reading I’ve been doing lately makes me want to do a deep dive and make an octopus best friend pronto.

In honor of World Octopus Day, Jer Thorp told a great story about getting to know an octopus on Storify.

A number of similar stories can be found in Sy Mongomery’s book, The Soul of an Octopus. Montgomery becomes friendly with a number of very different octopuses during the course of researching and writing her book, and she tells the story of each of them with a sensitivity and probing inquisitiveness worthy of an octopus’ tentacle. In this passage, she describes meeting Athena, the New England Aquarium’s octopus at the beginning of her research:

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Earth Flattens Just A Bit More

It’s hard to imagine not being mildly thrilled at the idea of some wild-looking nudibranches washing up on the shores of the U.S., but the news isn’t all neon colors and new waving tentacles: these new arrivals are survivors of the 2011 Japanese tsunami, and they arrive as castaways. The nudibranches, sea slugs, and other creatures survived the tsunami’s wreckage by floating on plastic rafts over many thousands of miles and several generations, and they have no natural predators in their new homes.

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