Watch this video ad-free on Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/real-science-the-insane-biology-of-the-octopus New streaming platform: https://watchnebula.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/realscience Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephaniesamma Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephaniesammann Credits: Writer/Narrator/Editor: Stephanie Sammann Editor: Dylan Hennessy (https://www.behance.net/dylanhennessy1) Illustrator/Animator: Kirtan Patel (https://kpatart.com/illustrations) Animator: Mike Ridolfi (https://www.moboxgraphics.com/) Sound: Graham Haerther (https://haerther.net) Thumbnail: Simon Buckmaster (https://twitter.com/forgottentowel) Producer: Brian McManus (https://www.youtube.com/c/realengineering) Imagery courtesy of Getty Images References: [1] https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/cephalopod-camouflage-cells-and-organs-of-the-144048968/ [2] https://thebiologist.rsb.org.uk/biologist-features/158-biologist/features/2071-the-real-chameleons [3] https://ideas.ted.com/oddballs-with-high-level-intelligence-a-q-a-with-roger-hanlon-about-the-amazing-octopus/ [4] https://jeb.biologists.org/content/218/10/1462.short [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_by_number_of_neurons [6] https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-06/agu-rmh062419.php [7] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/28/alien-intelligence-the-extraordinary-minds-of-octopuses-and-other-cephalopods [8] https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/fulltext/S0169-5347(18)30267-2 [9] http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Definitions_of_Play#:~:text=One%20often%2Dquoted%20definition%20of,patterns%20resembling%20those%20used%20in [10] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/beastly-behavior/201705/why-play-is-important
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I gotta go to work in 4hours and I'm over here learning about octopuses at 2 AM
Having done a lot of diving - I can say that the octopus is an absolute marvel to encounter. Some (mostly the younger ones) are ... So curious. At first it's like "WOW! U THREAT?!" once it establishes that you are not, it's like "Eeer ... What are you then? I've never seen one of you around before." and there begins the act of mutual curiosity :3. You slowly reach with a finger, it sends a tentacle ... you both touch, sometimes they get frightened and clamp your entire hand, flashing black before letting go, but not swimming away. They are playful, find a shiny pebble, hand it to the octopus, it'll take it, check if it can be eaten ... discard it ... then a few sec after send a tentacle back to the pebble out of curiosity as to "why did he give me this pebble ... gotta check again for anything special". They really hold a very special place in my heart, it's not everyday that two species get curious about one another and attempt mutual understanding :)
Can we just appreciate the fact that there isn’t a single ad in this whole video?
"You gained intelligence?" octopus: "yes" "What did it cost?" octopus: "shell"
Such content is incredibly underappreciated
I worked with a marine biologist studying cephalopods. He had one big tank for octopuses and one for crabs, their favorite food. One morning he came in and found that one of his octopuses had pushed the lid open on his tank, crossed the floor and climbed into the crab tank. Soon it became a common occurrence. He decided to give the octopus a mild shock when he found it in the crab tank to deter it. Within days he came in and found the octopus had still gone to the crab tank, eaten it's fill, but then climbed back to its own tank to avoid the shock. They are amazing animals.
> ditched the shell > evolved intelligence So this is what it means to leave your comfort zone
The next time someone tells you, you need to get out of your shell; they’re offering you a path to evolution, intelligence and enlightenment.
Millions of years from now octopi will be studying why humans destroyed themselves.
just how intelegent are they? octo : _wearing coconut shell while walking like a model_
Octopuses: *sophisticatedly evolved to survive this long Humans: whoa, this animal is amazing! Maybe we should eat it
My favorite creature ever. I was on a crab ship in Russia. I was the green horn so I had to empty out the pots. I was also making hooch quietly because it was forbidden (it was lighting in a cup) so I could swap liquor with the chef for him making me private meals. One day there was an octopus in a crab pot. I tossed it a live well. Came back once everyone was off the deck. Was gonna take it to the chef. it softly wrapped itself around my arm and I felt like I could see the fear in its eyes. I couldn't do it. I took it over to the side of the ship, held it over. It looked down, looked back at me, let go of my arm, and worked its way down the side of the ship until it got to the water. AMAZING CREATURES!
God this makes me wish I could get back to school and pursue marine biology like little me dreamed of.
if they taught stuff like this at school i’d actually listen
"the octopus lost its shell 140m years ago" poor thing, we should help them find it
Exam in 4 hours, have I studied? No. Have I learned about how octopuses are possibly the first intelligent being? Yes. Am I happy with my productivity? Hell mother f’ing yes.
I feel like the narrator is going to say "Everything Changed When the Fire Nation Attacked" at any second
I think cephalopod intelligence is “hard wired”. An octopus has a very short lifespan, as little as 18 months, and has to learn everything from the moment it hatches completely on its own. Its mother died before it emerged from the egg, so it is born an orphan. This has huge implications, because despite being intelligent it has no “mentor” to learn from. It’s also a mollusk, so in a way it’s a slug with awesome superpowers. They’re fascinating animals.
I hope there is an updated version made. Octopuses and squid are now known not to be colorblind but just as their intelligence evolved differently than chordates their color vision is completely different. They only have a single type of photodetector and the fact that lenses are achromatic and have non-circular pupils and their visual system is much more complicated than ours so as to be able to extract color diffraction around the edge of the pupil and the achromatic distortions caused by lenses.
changing colors and body textures is incredible but what amazes me even more is the speed at which the octopus does it…it’s freakin insane man