Ecology & Zoology

An opinion piece in the Boston Herald criticizes the squid dissection component of an overnight family education event at the New England Aquarium: The barbaric highlight of the night was when the children were instructed to use the squid’s pseudo-spine to puncture its ink sac and then write their names on the carcass. [My son] Ari rolled his eyes at this vanity ritual in disbelief, calling it “mean” and “crazy.” I’ll go one step further and brand it “borderline satanic.” That's one or two steps too far for me. Performing this procedure on a live squid would certainly be mean, perhaps even…

I love that the Census of Marine Life is getting news coverage! It proves that people can get excited over cool exploratory science--natural history of the deep--that doesn't have any immediate application. If you want to hear deep-sea species discussed in a truly awesome Scottish accent, play this video and have a listen to Dr. Alan Hughes. They discuss football octopods, jewel squids, and of course our friend the dumbo octopus. But it's a bit tricky to understand what exactly is "new" about these finds. Ocythoe (football octopuses), Histioteuthidae (jewel squids), and Grimpoteuthis (dumbo…

Speaking of cirrate octopods (as I have been recently), BBC News In Pictures: Monsters of the deep is strongly dominated by a cirrate octopus! Yay! Three of the eight photos feature Grimpoteuthis: Picture #1 is very much dead, probably preserved in ethanol?Picture #6 is the first photo I've seen of a person holding a cirrate octopus. Really brings home the size and the gelatinous consistency.Picture #7 is definitely the cutest. I know all three look very different, but gelatinous animals have a tendency to look extremely different in vs. out of water, and alive vs. preserved. So they could…

While surveying monkeys in the Magombera Forest in Tanzania, environmental scientists this week unexpectedly discovered a new species of chameleon called Kinyongia magomberae, or the Magombera chameleon. The researchers distinguished the new specimen by collecting, testing and comparing it to two others found in the same area of the Udzungwa Mountains National Park. Their results are documented in the African Journal of Herpetology. "Discovering a new species is a rare event so to be involved in the identification and naming of this animal is very exciting, said co-discoverer Dr Andrew…

I wrote the following about the toothed sucker rings of the Humboldt squid in Squid Says: What's For Dinner? Probably Not You: Each ring would barely fit on the finger of an infant, and the "teeth" range from the length of a pinhead to microscopic. An armful of these sucker rings raking across your skin is like being scratched by a lot of very small cats. Ouch, but far from deadly. If you were a fish, the sucker teeth wouldn't even get under your scales. Their purpose, like the "toothed" tongue, is similar to Velcro, and consequently the arms and tentacles are very, very good at holding onto…

I discovered that Giant Squid was a band when I was searching for squid products on Amazon (yes, that is pretty typical behavior for me). Okay, I thought, rather miffed, some punk band thinks it's cool to name themselves after an enormous marine invertebrate, but I'm sure their songs are all angst and anger, not axons and . . . wait . . . Ampullae of Lorenzini? Yes! Contrary to all my expectations, these kids know their marine biology. Their first album, Metridium Fields, is the name of a dive site in Monterey, which is densely populated with Metridium, this beautiful anemone: And one of the…

According to a recent GENETICS study, a family of genes (1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate synthase, or ACS genes) are responsible for production of ethylene and since this gas affects many aspects of plant development, it could lay the foundation for future genetic manipulation that could make plants disease resistant, able to survive and thrive in difficult terrain, increase yields, and other useful agronomical outcomes. The discovery was made with the weed Arabidopsis thaliana but is applicable to plants used in agriculture, they say. "I hope that this work will provide insights into how a…

A nifty news story about students in a Florida classroom watching a giant squid dissected in Melbourne, Australia, led me to hunt down an article about the dissection itself. Was it really a giant squid, I wondered wearily, or merely a very large squid? It was indeed a true giant squid! And the article is quite good, gushing alliteratively about "the museum's mollusc master" using "surgical sweeps of the scalpel" to investigate. Just a few points to clarify: As giant squids are cannibals and the females larger than the males, breeding involves the male squid firing sperm at the female, where…

And they're on exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Splash Zone! Seriously, if you are within 100 miles of Monterey, you should go see them now. If you're not, well . . . sorry! Take my word for it, they're really cute! You'll have to take my word for it, because yeah, I forgot my camera. Oops. That link up there to the aquarium's site will take you to some lovely video footage, though. MBA is particulary good at showcasing local animals, stuff that you could see (but most people never do) if you went diving right out in the bay. The cuttlefish are some of the few exotics they have on…

First the bad news: our octopus died. Climbed out over the astroturf, was found on the floor the next day. Very, very sad. But, the consolation: on the same day, a dozen or so live market squid appeared in our lab, fresh from the spawning grounds, ready to lay eggs for research. They are beautiful! The good news: a diver was pulling up some instruments and an octopus stowed away. Knowing my lab's love of all things cephalopod, this diver brought us the octopus, who is now adorably and safely ensconced in a very secure tank, and shortly to be stuffed to the gills with crabs and shrimp. And…