Indie Squid Kid

Russian Cthulu, originally uploaded by peacay.

This looks like a job for the Vulgar Army!

Unfinished: Cephalopodmas, originally uploaded by xtopher42.

Cephalopodmas is December 22…only eleven days away!
Watch this feed in the days to come for more holiday fun!

, originally uploaded by Divine Harvester.

I’m not what the story behind this is, but I like it!

Update: The photographer says that he spotted this sign in the Old Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, WA.

A Plush A Day: Day 2 Baby Socktopus, originally uploaded by Futuregirl_LeahRiley.

We interrupt Action Figure Week to bring you this really cute hand-made one-eyed plush octopus. It was yesterday’s entry in Leah Riley’s Plush a Day Challenge. That’s right, Leah is making a new plush toy every day until she runs out of ideas or scrap material. Which ever comes first!

Follow her progress at Leah’s Stuff.

In contrast to last night’s post about store-bought costumes (which were, admittedly, a little disappointing), here is an assortment of hand-crafted cephalopod costumes from the Flickr community.

Photo by atomicglassworks

Photo by stacy d

Photo by kiethbcg

Photo by baking with medusa

Photo by timsueocs

Photo by Jessemy

Photo by luminea

Ammonite, originally uploaded by elrina753.

This awesome replica of a turrilitid ammonite is from the Cretaceous Seas diorama at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. I don’t know exactly which type of turrilitid this is, but my best guess is the genus Pseudhelicoceras.

Members of the ammonite family Turrilitidae are characterized by shells that are not typical tight spirals—a condition known to paleontologists as heteromorph. It isn’t clear what ecological niche the turrilitids filled, but at least some species are thought to have drifted up and down in the water column. They lived world-wide during the late Cretaceous period, but, like all ammonites, they went extinct in the same global catastrophe that killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

Coconut Octopus, originally uploaded by NG Richard.

Ever since I did the research for my Eight Awesome Octopuses post, the little Coconut Octopus is fast becoming my favorite eight-legged cephalopod. This image is cute and awesome and reminds me of a hamburger. That is all.

Inside the deep blue…., originally uploaded by hendradive.

I write a lot about squids and octopuses here, but let’s not forget the lonely and majestic Nautilus. One has to travel to the Indo-Pacific to see a living Nautilus in its natural habitat, the deep slopes of coral reefs. Only six Nautilus species remain, the last representatives of a cephalopod group that has existed since the late Cambrian period (~500 million years ago).

And so International Cephalopod Awareness Day part 2 draws to a close…and yet I am still working on my big Octopus Day post! If I could stop coughing, I’m sure it things would go faster…

Pike Place squid, originally uploaded by penmachine.

This life-size metal sculpture of Architeuthis has been looming over shoppers in the heart of Seattle’s Pike Place Market since early 2002. Created by sculptor Pat Wickline, the 35′ long squid is made primarily of sheet copper.