The PBS Web companion to "The Octopus Show" is an excellent place to begin this tour of one of the most extraordinary invertebrates around (1). The video clips are not to be missed: Viewers will see how an octopus can squeeze through impossibly small plexiglass tubes, camouflage itself to near invisibility, and even catch a shark! The next two websites are recent news articles from _Discover_ magazine. The first article (2) offers a look at a recently discovered deep-sea nursery -- "a place where fish and octopuses brood their eggs as if they were chickens in a coop." The story photo almost looks fake, it's so unusual. The following article (3) goes further in depth into these "big-brained invertebrates that display many cognitive, behavioral, and affective traits once considered exclusive to the higher vertebrates." The following website (4) contains an article from The Christian Science Monitor, highlighting the work of a University of Buffalo professor who is using the octopus eye as a model to create "electronic vision systems that could be used in robots to explore the oceans, outer space, and harsh environments." The next site provides a March 2002 article from BBC News, reporting on the discovery of a 4-meter-long _Haliphron atlanticus_ specimen, found somewhat incidentally when someone cleaned out a freezer at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (5). The next website comes from The Cephalopod Page, an online resource created by Dr. James Wood at Dalhousie University (6). Visitors will find photos and informative descriptions of different octopus species here (look under Family Octopodidae). Next, BioMEDIA Associates provides an interesting comparison of octopus and insect eyes -- each examples of sophisticated vision in invertebrates (7). And just for fun, take a look at some of the octopus's most dedicated admirers in this website from The Octopus News Magazine Online (8).
Comments