If you are reading this blog, you already know that cephalopods are awesome…and why they are awesome. (And that is why YOU are awesome!) However, it is always nice when someone, such as BoingBoing contributor Maggie Koerth-Baker, expertly summarizes the amazing features of our squishy friends. This pithy video is the short version of “Those Fabulous Octopus Brains,” a 30 min presentation she gave last August for a University of New Mexico IGERT symposium.
I know I’ve let this blog languish a bit recently, and I thank you for sticking with me. Over the past few months I have collected literally hundreds of links to cool examples of cephalopod art, photography, and miscellaneous awesomeness. Over the next week or so, I plan to flood your RSS reader with a veritable swarm of new posts (although I guess “shoal” might be a more biologically apt term). I also haven’t forgotten about the Architeuthis Across America project…I just need to get my house in order first.
A salty salute!|Atlanta Aquarium cuttlefish|photo by Natalie Metzger
Last night I discovered that PZ Myers recently linked to last week’s Dr. Aquaman post, a simple act that sent a surge of traffic to this humble cephalo-blog. So, if you are one of the 3,000+ new visitors, I say WELCOME PHARYNGULITES! (Or is it Pharyngulists? Pharyngularians?) I salute you in the manner of our people, and I invite you take a look around the place. Here at Indie Squid Kid, it’s Friday Cephalopod every day! (Well, more or less. I haven’t been my typical prolific self lately, what with my busted thumb and all.)
Like it says up at the top of the page, I’m a collector of all things tentacled—squids, octopuses, cuttlefish, Cthulhu…I love them all! Within this blog you’ll find many examples from my own collection of ceph-stuff, as well as items trawled from the deep reaches of the Internet. Don’t know where to start? My Eight Awesome Octopuses article was pretty popular, and if you like that, why not take a swim with Ten Sensational Squids? Additionally, I’ve got a few (semi)regular features you might want to check out: T-shirt Tuesday, Wednesday Comics, and Flickr Friday. You may also be interested in some of my past theme weeks, such as: Art Week, Movie Week, Music Week, Action Figure Week, and Cthulhu Week. Sometimes, people even send me Sightings.
So, welcome again to any and all new readers. Feel free to leave some comments if you like, and, if you think you might want to stay while, please consider subscribing.
Thanks, and stay tuned for more tentacular content!
Wildlife Artists, Inc is a toy company dedicated to making realistic plush animals. This cuddly cuttlefish is about 8″ long and was produced in 1999. If I recall correctly, I picked this up from the NC Museum of Natural Sciences gift shop sometime in 2001.
The tag doesn’t indicate which species it is meant to be, but based on the brown and yellow coloration, I would tentatively guess Sepia officinalis, the Common Cuttlefish. The Common Cuttlefish (also known as the European Cuttlefish) is found in the Mediterranean, Baltic and North Seas, and it typically reaches a maximum mantle length of about 45 cm—about twice a big as this particular toy.
I know that Wildlife Artists makes at least one other toy cephalopod (What could it be? Stay tuned to find out!), but I don’t know if there are others. You need a Customer Account to access their online product catalog, but, unfortunately, I can’t find any information on their website how to sign up for such an account.
This trio of preserved cephalopods is from the Naturhistorisches Museum in Bern, Switzerland, and is brought to us courtesy of Curious Expeditions, a marvelous site maintained by two intrepid catalogers of wonderful and bizarre places from all around the world.
Mr. Sardonicus sent me this sighting of a super-detailed line of Japanese gashapon (aka capsule toys).
He says,
Produced by Takara/Tomy, the complete set includes 10 figures (3 octopi, 2 cuttlefish, 4 squid, and 1 “secret” argonaut) and runs upwards of $75, but it’s not too difficult to find individuals being sold on eBay for $10 or less.
I’ll definitely have to keep an eye out for these. Thanks Brian!
February has been a hectic and exhausting month, and it turns out I needed a little break from my usual frenetic schedule of daily blog posts. (Plus I’ve become slightly addicted to the Winter Olympics.) Of course, during the down time I’ve ended up with a large backlog of material—not the least of which are the final two entries of the Ten Sensational Squids countdown. So, while I work on getting caught up, please enjoy the following video presentation by David Gallo, which reminds us all why cephalopods are so freakin’ awesome.
Once again we turn our sights on Etsy.com, the nexus of all things creative and crafty on the Internet. A search for “squid jewelry” (for example) currently returns over 400 results, but I’ve isolated three sellers that epitomize the kind of awesome cephalopod jewelry that abounds on Etsy.
Sheryl Westleigh creates amazing polymer clay and mixed media jewelry and sculptures, and I think she loves cephalopods almost as much as do. (OK, probably more!) Her shop has tons of great items in multiple styles and color variations, so if any of these pieces have sold, I’m sure you will be able to find something every bit as good. Not every thing in Noadi’s shop is cephalopod-related—look for trilobites, horseshoe crabs, and even a festive holiday platypus!
If you are looking for something a little more high-end, how about sterling sliver (and sometimes gold) jewelry made from real octopus tentacles? Here are a couple of examples, but there are many, many more in the shop!
Free shipping on all items until Sunday, December 7th.
PZ Myer’s Pharyngula is a blog about evolution, development, and a myriad other aspects of the biological sciences. Myer is a fellow cephalopod enthusiast, and every Friday he posts an image of a cephalopod (such as the one shown above, from today) as part of a feature called, oddly enough, Friday Cephalopod.
Pharyngula is a member of the ScienceBlogs family, the source of many of the subscriptions in my blog reader.
In a similar vein of what I’ve started doing on Tuesdays, every Friday (beginning today) I will share a cephalopod image that I’ve found on the photo site Flickr.com.
Today we have a cuttlefish from the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga. Even I can admit that as fascinating and awesome as cephalopods are, they are rarely “cute” in the traditional sense. However, this little guy proves that you don’t have to be fuzzy to be adorable!
Toho Company Ltd. is a Japanese independent film studio founded in 1932. It has produced the films of legendary director Akira Kurosawa and the animated features of Studio Ghibli, but it is best known for daikaiju eiga (giant monster movies) like Godzilla (1954), Rodan (1956), Mothra (1961), and Destroy All Monsters (1968). Toho monster movies are full of mutant dinosaurs, giant insects, aliens, robots, dragons, and, of course, the occasional cephalopod.
King Kong vs Godzilla (1962)
This is the third movie appearance for each of the title monsters and the first time that either appeared in color. At the time, King Kong was considered the more popular monster, and so the giant ape is the primary focus of the film. The plot centers around a Japanese pharmaceutical company that hatches the clearly awesome idea of sending an expedition to Faro Island to capture King Kong so they can use the monster in an advertising campaign. At the same time, an American submarine accidentally releases Godzilla from an iceberg, and the atomic dinosaur proceeds to go on his customary rampage.
Back on Faro Island, a native village is attacked by Oodako, the giant octopus. Interestingly, Toho used a live octopus for these scenes, an oddity in daikaiju movies where models and rubber suits are the norm. Kong fights and defeats the octopus, and then proceeds to get drunk on berry juice. As you do.
Long story short, the intoxicated ape gets captured and transported to Japan. He escapes, fights Godzilla (who sets his crotch on fire), and gets captured again after the military hits him with a missile filled with the same narcotic berry juice. Stoned and unconscious, King Kong is then tied to a bunch of balloons and dropped by the military on the top of Mt. Fuji so he can fight Godzilla again. Their battle ends in the ocean, and Kong appears to be victorious. He is last seen swimming back to his island.
King Kong vs Oodako
Oodako the octopus would later have cameo appearances in Frankenstein Conquerors the World (1965) and War of the Gargantuas (1966).
Space Amoeba (1970) — a.k.a. Yog-Monster From Space
Yog is an alien energy being that invades a space probe on its return trip to Earth. When the ship crashes down in the South Pacific, the alien enters the body of a cuttlefish, transforming it into the giant Gezora. Gezora can walk on the land and emit extreme cold from its tentacles. It is vulnerable to fire, a fact discovered and utilized by inhabitants of the island that the giant cephalopod was terrorizing. After suffering a fiery defeat, Yog leaves to possess two other sea creatures (seemingly simultaneously): Ganime, a monstrous crab, and Kamoebas, a giant turtle. Through the use of bat sonar (which Yog seems hate), the two monsters are made to fight. They end up falling in a volcano, and Yog is destroyed.
Gezora the cuttlefish is a classic example of Toho “suitmation” (in other words, the monster was played buy a guy in a rubber squid suit). It’s only other appearance was in stock footage used in Godzilla: Final Wars (2004).
King Kong vs Godzilla (1962)
