1 00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:06,680 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 2 00:00:06,680 --> 00:00:14,000 Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 3 00:00:14,040 --> 00:00:16,200 Speaker 1: My name is Robert lamp and I'm Julie Douglas. You 4 00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:20,720 Speaker 1: know Julie. Recently, we we're discussing something on here. I 5 00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:23,400 Speaker 1: think it was something dolphin related, and we ended up 6 00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:28,480 Speaker 1: talking a little bit about the ideosaurus, which do you 7 00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:32,560 Speaker 1: remember I I refer to these as fright dolphins because 8 00:00:32,600 --> 00:00:36,360 Speaker 1: they kind of look like nightmares dolphin's very sharp rows 9 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:39,200 Speaker 1: of teeth. Right. Yeah, yeah, they're a long extinct now, 10 00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:41,440 Speaker 1: but but they're they're interest because they show up in 11 00:00:41,440 --> 00:00:47,280 Speaker 1: the fossil record a lot, and and they're like bus size, big, 12 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:50,600 Speaker 1: big creatures. And uh, it was after the podcast was 13 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:52,320 Speaker 1: over I started looking at these guys again and I 14 00:00:52,360 --> 00:00:55,600 Speaker 1: happened upon a really fascinating news story that came out 15 00:00:56,120 --> 00:00:58,040 Speaker 1: about a year ago. And a number of you've probably 16 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:02,520 Speaker 1: already heard this, but uh, you had a man by 17 00:01:02,520 --> 00:01:06,880 Speaker 1: the name of Mark mcminimon, who is a paleontologist at 18 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:11,800 Speaker 1: Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mansachusetts, and he was 19 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:14,679 Speaker 1: speaking at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of 20 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:19,280 Speaker 1: America in Minneapolis, and he was talking specifically about a 21 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:24,440 Speaker 1: site in Las Vegas in the Nevada's Berlin Ittheosaur State Park, 22 00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:27,520 Speaker 1: which two hundred million years ago was in a desert 23 00:01:27,640 --> 00:01:29,920 Speaker 1: but was a sea floor. So you have all these 24 00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:34,440 Speaker 1: really cool fossils, and particularly you have I Thesaurus fossils, 25 00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:37,320 Speaker 1: and you have this one area though that is really 26 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:43,240 Speaker 1: perplexed um scientists for a while, where you have remains 27 00:01:43,240 --> 00:01:48,080 Speaker 1: of nine different forty five ft Athosaurus um. Back in 28 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:50,920 Speaker 1: the fifties, there was this theory that the that due 29 00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:52,600 Speaker 1: to their position, we think they might have died in 30 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:55,640 Speaker 1: shallow water and this was actually a tile flat um 31 00:01:56,240 --> 00:01:59,640 Speaker 1: or due to accident old um you know, toxic plankton 32 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:03,040 Speaker 1: looming in the area. But recently there's been a rock 33 00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:06,600 Speaker 1: evidence to suggest this these bodies were actually much deeper 34 00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:12,520 Speaker 1: underwater than previously thought. So it read mcmentimun to come 35 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:15,799 Speaker 1: up with a very fascinating theory, I mean not just fastening, 36 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:18,279 Speaker 1: just a mind blowing theory and kind of a controversial 37 00:02:18,320 --> 00:02:22,560 Speaker 1: theory that we're still still waiting to for for the 38 00:02:22,600 --> 00:02:25,600 Speaker 1: rest of the scientific community to officially chime in on. Well, 39 00:02:25,639 --> 00:02:29,280 Speaker 1: these fossils had patterns that resemble suckers on a tentacle, 40 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:32,880 Speaker 1: right right, and that was the big mystery. And so 41 00:02:33,080 --> 00:02:38,520 Speaker 1: mcmentimun came up with this idea that this crack and 42 00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:43,080 Speaker 1: like creature nearly one ft long or thirty meters long, 43 00:02:43,600 --> 00:02:48,480 Speaker 1: drowned or broke the neck of the thesaurus and then 44 00:02:48,560 --> 00:02:52,280 Speaker 1: just like took them down to his layer. Yes, and 45 00:02:52,280 --> 00:02:56,560 Speaker 1: then and then there are two additional layers of interest here. Okay, octopi, 46 00:02:57,960 --> 00:03:01,919 Speaker 1: as we'll discussing this podcast another cephal occupied especially are 47 00:03:02,080 --> 00:03:06,519 Speaker 1: rather smart creatures. They actually are capable of playing with things. 48 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:08,600 Speaker 1: They get bored and they take things apart, and they 49 00:03:08,639 --> 00:03:11,480 Speaker 1: scrunch things up and they uh they can't keep their 50 00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:16,600 Speaker 1: hands still, I mean they're tentacles still rather so, uh So, 51 00:03:16,639 --> 00:03:20,920 Speaker 1: the argument here is that this ancient cephalopod giant that 52 00:03:21,320 --> 00:03:25,440 Speaker 1: dined on the sars in the deep, that that to 53 00:03:25,560 --> 00:03:28,760 Speaker 1: hear she also would play with his or her food. 54 00:03:29,320 --> 00:03:32,640 Speaker 1: And then there's this added layer that mcmanimum adds to 55 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:36,600 Speaker 1: this where he suggests that these creatures might have actually 56 00:03:37,480 --> 00:03:39,840 Speaker 1: that the crack and may have actually formed these dead 57 00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:44,280 Speaker 1: ichthusars into the shape of a tentacle that they may 58 00:03:44,320 --> 00:03:48,480 Speaker 1: have been playing with their bodies actually created art the 59 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:54,360 Speaker 1: first art like an artistic interpretation of itself, which is uh, 60 00:03:54,440 --> 00:03:57,000 Speaker 1: which which is again controversial theory here. But it's just 61 00:03:57,120 --> 00:03:59,080 Speaker 1: it's really mind blowing, and it just felt like we 62 00:03:59,120 --> 00:04:01,440 Speaker 1: had to mention. Well, I love the idea of it 63 00:04:01,480 --> 00:04:04,280 Speaker 1: because I immediately think the most scientific thing I can 64 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:06,680 Speaker 1: think of, which is of course Clash of the Titans. 65 00:04:07,360 --> 00:04:10,280 Speaker 1: And I think about, you know, the cracking and being 66 00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:14,120 Speaker 1: released from its under original or or the original of course, 67 00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:18,520 Speaker 1: which granted that that creature well awesome wasn't like an 68 00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:24,240 Speaker 1: actual squid it was, and yeah, yeah, hey, I was 69 00:04:24,279 --> 00:04:26,599 Speaker 1: sort of disappointing when it actually did emerge. Yeah, but 70 00:04:26,640 --> 00:04:29,520 Speaker 1: it does. It brings to mind creatures like that, the 71 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:33,039 Speaker 1: cracking of myth. It brings to mind Cthulhu. Uh. And 72 00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:35,800 Speaker 1: it's intelligent, god like squid in the darkness. And just 73 00:04:35,839 --> 00:04:38,200 Speaker 1: the idea that in an age, and in a in 74 00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:42,240 Speaker 1: an age with so beyond human experience and in a 75 00:04:42,279 --> 00:04:45,640 Speaker 1: place so beyond human experience, that you could have this 76 00:04:45,760 --> 00:04:50,800 Speaker 1: intellect capable of of taking these grizzly remains and wrenching 77 00:04:50,839 --> 00:04:54,520 Speaker 1: them into its own shape. You know, it's just a well, 78 00:04:54,880 --> 00:04:57,080 Speaker 1: and I think the reason why you can't help it 79 00:04:57,080 --> 00:05:03,080 Speaker 1: get caught up in this explanation as radical and it's right. 80 00:05:03,120 --> 00:05:05,680 Speaker 1: Yet what you're doing is you're you're marrying the brains 81 00:05:05,680 --> 00:05:09,839 Speaker 1: that we know about cephalopods with braun to come up 82 00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:13,320 Speaker 1: with this idea of them sculpting underwater. Um. But let's 83 00:05:13,320 --> 00:05:15,800 Speaker 1: talk about the fact that that there's some criticism obviously 84 00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:22,640 Speaker 1: that you know about this UM Yeah, yessing. Well, for 85 00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:27,239 Speaker 1: Sartis mcmanimum, he's he's still standing by what he said 86 00:05:27,279 --> 00:05:32,240 Speaker 1: and he's working on like official um official studies regarding 87 00:05:32,240 --> 00:05:35,560 Speaker 1: this theory. So so in his defense, he hasn't really 88 00:05:35,760 --> 00:05:38,080 Speaker 1: had the chance to to really come out full force 89 00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:40,960 Speaker 1: with his findings in his theory. He's just he's just 90 00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:44,480 Speaker 1: roughly alluded to it at this conference and said I'll 91 00:05:44,480 --> 00:05:47,080 Speaker 1: get back to you when I have these finished, and 92 00:05:47,120 --> 00:05:50,360 Speaker 1: everyone waits with debated breath. But the critics have already 93 00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:54,160 Speaker 1: pointed out that, well, that's a pretty imaginative explanation for 94 00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:56,920 Speaker 1: what we're seeing here, and there are other explanations that 95 00:05:56,960 --> 00:06:02,680 Speaker 1: don't involve intelligent cephalopod artist in the triastic age. Yeah, 96 00:06:02,720 --> 00:06:04,720 Speaker 1: there was there was one person who said that the 97 00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:08,360 Speaker 1: hypothesis was a lot, you know, looking at these etchings 98 00:06:08,839 --> 00:06:11,080 Speaker 1: that The hypothesis is a lot like looking at clouds 99 00:06:11,080 --> 00:06:13,840 Speaker 1: and being able to see what you desire, that this 100 00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:17,200 Speaker 1: artifact isn't there, This specimen isn't really that well preserved 101 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:21,960 Speaker 1: in the first place. So there's that. UM. Then there is, 102 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:24,760 Speaker 1: of course the idea that there's no direct evidence of 103 00:06:24,880 --> 00:06:29,680 Speaker 1: really large cephalopods at that size um And Glenn Stores, 104 00:06:29,720 --> 00:06:33,600 Speaker 1: curator of vertebrate paleontology at Cincinnati Museum Center, told Live 105 00:06:33,680 --> 00:06:37,760 Speaker 1: Science that circumstantial evidence is not enough. Totally agree with that. Yeah, 106 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:39,560 Speaker 1: And what migmonimum is really gonna want to have here 107 00:06:39,640 --> 00:06:42,160 Speaker 1: is he needs to produce a beak or fossil evidence 108 00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:46,400 Speaker 1: of the beak because there because theoretically there could have 109 00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:49,120 Speaker 1: been crackings everywhere back then they could have just been 110 00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:51,320 Speaker 1: ruling the roofs, but there would have been so few 111 00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:54,120 Speaker 1: of them, and they're mostly soft material. And as we've 112 00:06:54,120 --> 00:06:58,800 Speaker 1: discussed before, fossilization is not a guaranteed process. It's more 113 00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:01,160 Speaker 1: of the exception to the rule that we actually see 114 00:07:01,160 --> 00:07:03,800 Speaker 1: fossil evidence of a creature that once lived. Now, I 115 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:06,200 Speaker 1: will play Devil's advocate here and I will mention the 116 00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:09,120 Speaker 1: book called krack And by Wendy Williams that that you 117 00:07:09,320 --> 00:07:13,559 Speaker 1: lent me and she does talk about this idea of um, 118 00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:17,600 Speaker 1: cephalopods is is very mysterious creatures that wore for a 119 00:07:17,640 --> 00:07:21,600 Speaker 1: long time in the category of cryptozoology. She says that 120 00:07:21,680 --> 00:07:24,120 Speaker 1: even up until like I think the eighteen seventies, they 121 00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:27,600 Speaker 1: had a specimen. Uh, but it was until the eighteen 122 00:07:27,760 --> 00:07:32,240 Speaker 1: nineties when when the specimen was you know, wildly widely 123 00:07:32,320 --> 00:07:34,520 Speaker 1: then vetted, that people began to say, this is a 124 00:07:34,600 --> 00:07:37,360 Speaker 1: real thing. So of course you have to produce the 125 00:07:37,400 --> 00:07:39,760 Speaker 1: evidence in order to get there. Um. But I did 126 00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:41,920 Speaker 1: want to play Devil's advocate a bit to say that 127 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:45,200 Speaker 1: there's there's still you know, this idea that a giant 128 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:48,760 Speaker 1: cephalopod could have existed a long one. It's kind of 129 00:07:48,800 --> 00:07:52,080 Speaker 1: a wild theory, but wild theories, like dreams, sometimes come true. 130 00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:56,440 Speaker 1: Oh it was beautiful. Um. So okay, we're gonna talk 131 00:07:56,480 --> 00:07:59,760 Speaker 1: obviously a lot about cephalopods today because they are fascinating 132 00:07:59,800 --> 00:08:03,680 Speaker 1: in because their brains are just a wonder um. In 133 00:08:03,760 --> 00:08:07,640 Speaker 1: fact um, you know, the brain of the cephalopod has 134 00:08:07,680 --> 00:08:11,440 Speaker 1: really advanced our understanding of ourselves right, our our own 135 00:08:11,680 --> 00:08:15,960 Speaker 1: neuroscientists can definitely give a nod to cephalopods um and 136 00:08:16,040 --> 00:08:20,120 Speaker 1: even like a gerontology that the study of aging, so 137 00:08:20,200 --> 00:08:25,200 Speaker 1: the brain of the cephalopod. It's it's interesting because cephalopods 138 00:08:25,200 --> 00:08:27,840 Speaker 1: are really not that far removed from saying you're you're 139 00:08:27,880 --> 00:08:31,040 Speaker 1: common gardens slug. But we don't really look to the 140 00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:34,120 Speaker 1: garden slug for any kind of staggering intellect. It's a 141 00:08:34,120 --> 00:08:38,320 Speaker 1: pretty simple creature and pretty disgusting um that really shouldn't 142 00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:41,679 Speaker 1: exist at all. Whereas the cephalopods their jobs, what is 143 00:08:41,720 --> 00:08:44,280 Speaker 1: their job? They're like turning up the dirt they're they're making, 144 00:08:44,440 --> 00:08:48,199 Speaker 1: they're helping it to be more nutrient rich. Okay, well, disclaimer, 145 00:08:48,320 --> 00:08:50,720 Speaker 1: I kind of have a thing against garden slugs. Snails 146 00:08:50,720 --> 00:08:53,880 Speaker 1: are fine, and then cephalopods are amazing, even though they're 147 00:08:53,920 --> 00:08:57,079 Speaker 1: they're they're all basically buddies and probably email each other 148 00:08:57,080 --> 00:09:00,000 Speaker 1: on the weekends. And uh, in the in the cephalopods 149 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:01,480 Speaker 1: of like, hey, sorry, dude, I don't know why I 150 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:04,760 Speaker 1: lamb is such a jerk about climbing on things to 151 00:09:04,840 --> 00:09:08,040 Speaker 1: climbing up the domain. But um, like once one gotten 152 00:09:08,040 --> 00:09:10,439 Speaker 1: the sink and I almost threw up it was disgusting, 153 00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:16,640 Speaker 1: but not a cephalopod. Yeah, so yeah, please don't nail 154 00:09:16,640 --> 00:09:19,360 Speaker 1: me slugs people, But but the brain of a cephalopod 155 00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:23,280 Speaker 1: is pretty amazing because while compared to the human brain, 156 00:09:23,320 --> 00:09:25,319 Speaker 1: it's not really that impressive and it's not that big, 157 00:09:25,720 --> 00:09:30,880 Speaker 1: but for an invertebrate and then certainly for for a mosque, 158 00:09:30,920 --> 00:09:34,280 Speaker 1: these are amazing brains that they're packing. Also, you have 159 00:09:34,280 --> 00:09:36,840 Speaker 1: to keep in mind cephalopods were generally talking about creatures 160 00:09:36,880 --> 00:09:40,200 Speaker 1: that live only one to two years, and but they're 161 00:09:40,200 --> 00:09:44,520 Speaker 1: still there's still have an incredible brain activity going on well, 162 00:09:44,520 --> 00:09:46,760 Speaker 1: and that one to two years is key in studying 163 00:09:46,880 --> 00:09:50,840 Speaker 1: aging because you can see it in real time right there. Um. 164 00:09:50,880 --> 00:09:55,240 Speaker 1: This is from Science Magazines article tackling brain evolution fall 165 00:09:55,320 --> 00:09:59,600 Speaker 1: eight arms short of Martians showing up and offering themselves 166 00:09:59,679 --> 00:10:03,000 Speaker 1: up to science, cephalopods are the only example outside of vertebrates, 167 00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:06,120 Speaker 1: of how to build a complex, clever brain, says neuroscientists 168 00:10:06,160 --> 00:10:09,480 Speaker 1: Cliff rag Cell of the University of Chicago and Illinois. 169 00:10:09,679 --> 00:10:12,560 Speaker 1: For that reason, rag Seal says, these creatures have much 170 00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:15,840 Speaker 1: to teach us about brain evolution. So just how impressive 171 00:10:15,920 --> 00:10:19,679 Speaker 1: is the cephalopod brain? Um? Okay, so yeah, some some 172 00:10:19,800 --> 00:10:23,120 Speaker 1: general modern cephalopod stats here. Um, they do have the 173 00:10:23,160 --> 00:10:25,800 Speaker 1: most complex brains of any invertebrates. An octopus brain has 174 00:10:25,800 --> 00:10:28,160 Speaker 1: fifty to seventy five lobes and at least as many 175 00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:31,760 Speaker 1: neurons about one million as a mouse brain, and that 176 00:10:31,960 --> 00:10:34,880 Speaker 1: is not taking into the account the smaller brains in 177 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:39,800 Speaker 1: each arm, the still smaller brains called ganglia technically associated 178 00:10:39,840 --> 00:10:45,520 Speaker 1: with each sucker. Cephalopods like octopus um or octopi think 179 00:10:45,640 --> 00:10:48,640 Speaker 1: we the the what do we decide on octopi as 180 00:10:48,720 --> 00:10:55,679 Speaker 1: the plural? Sure, cephalopods like octopi, Uh, they're unique, and 181 00:10:55,679 --> 00:10:58,360 Speaker 1: that all these ganglias have condensed, that they form a 182 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:01,679 Speaker 1: centralized brain. And the other thing that's unique is there 183 00:11:01,679 --> 00:11:04,000 Speaker 1: are two areas of the brain that have developed that 184 00:11:04,080 --> 00:11:07,720 Speaker 1: are specialized for memory storage. And we we see this 185 00:11:07,840 --> 00:11:11,600 Speaker 1: even in nautilus. But that's jumping ahead a bit. Um. 186 00:11:11,640 --> 00:11:14,680 Speaker 1: So their brains are larger and more condensed, and they 187 00:11:14,720 --> 00:11:18,440 Speaker 1: also have an area dedicated to learning. Um. But here's 188 00:11:18,480 --> 00:11:20,959 Speaker 1: the coolest thing. There are more neurons and the tentacles 189 00:11:20,960 --> 00:11:23,160 Speaker 1: than in the central brains with the ability to make 190 00:11:23,200 --> 00:11:26,800 Speaker 1: really lightning fast decisions, right they have to. I mean, 191 00:11:26,800 --> 00:11:29,040 Speaker 1: that's really where you get get down to the some 192 00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:32,160 Speaker 1: of the reasoning here um specifically with the octopus. Uh 193 00:11:32,679 --> 00:11:34,559 Speaker 1: going on and moving into the octopus section of the 194 00:11:34,840 --> 00:11:38,320 Speaker 1: podcast here, I guess um. The theory is that since 195 00:11:38,320 --> 00:11:41,920 Speaker 1: the octopus has to live in oftentimes like a tropical 196 00:11:41,920 --> 00:11:45,520 Speaker 1: coral leaf environment, they're in a very complex environment. These 197 00:11:45,520 --> 00:11:47,360 Speaker 1: are this is the these are the streets of like 198 00:11:47,480 --> 00:11:50,400 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies in New York. These are this is the jungle, 199 00:11:50,559 --> 00:11:52,960 Speaker 1: this is the you know, this is the warriors. And 200 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:55,360 Speaker 1: they have to have a lot of street smarts to survive. 201 00:11:55,480 --> 00:11:57,800 Speaker 1: So this is kind of like animal streets smarts. They 202 00:11:57,800 --> 00:11:59,640 Speaker 1: have to they have to be dexterious, they have to 203 00:11:59,640 --> 00:12:01,800 Speaker 1: be mass there's a disguise. They have to be stealthy, 204 00:12:01,840 --> 00:12:04,400 Speaker 1: they have to be killers. They have to be seductive, 205 00:12:04,720 --> 00:12:09,880 Speaker 1: well a little seductive. Well there's some seductive Um when 206 00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:12,520 Speaker 1: you get into the various coloration and hunting schemes, I 207 00:12:12,520 --> 00:12:14,880 Speaker 1: guess you can. You can make that argument. But but 208 00:12:14,960 --> 00:12:16,720 Speaker 1: they have to they have to to really be on 209 00:12:16,760 --> 00:12:19,120 Speaker 1: their game. And so the arms race is to be 210 00:12:19,200 --> 00:12:23,000 Speaker 1: this is not to simply hide, not to simply hunt, 211 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:25,960 Speaker 1: but to to manage all of these skills. And to 212 00:12:26,040 --> 00:12:28,200 Speaker 1: do that you need a pretty impressive brain. And UH 213 00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:32,240 Speaker 1: and pretty impressive nervous tissue to boot. Yeah, let's talk 214 00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:34,920 Speaker 1: about their tool use. We have mentioned this before, but 215 00:12:35,280 --> 00:12:39,600 Speaker 1: they are master tool users. Yes, um there there, there's 216 00:12:39,800 --> 00:12:42,720 Speaker 1: some fascinating footage you can find online up to of 217 00:12:42,800 --> 00:12:47,200 Speaker 1: octopi using coconuts for shelter. Basically a coconut half turn 218 00:12:47,280 --> 00:12:50,160 Speaker 1: it up. You got yourself a house, which is not 219 00:12:50,200 --> 00:12:52,719 Speaker 1: that big of a level as that revelation for for us, 220 00:12:52,800 --> 00:12:54,959 Speaker 1: but for a creature like this, it's pretty that's pretty 221 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:58,440 Speaker 1: phenomenal because tool use is uh is generally a mark 222 00:12:58,480 --> 00:13:02,120 Speaker 1: of a pretty advanced organism. But here's just the essentially 223 00:13:02,120 --> 00:13:04,360 Speaker 1: a sea slug that is uh, that is not really 224 00:13:04,400 --> 00:13:06,959 Speaker 1: a sea slug, but just to the slander it a bit. 225 00:13:07,480 --> 00:13:10,599 Speaker 1: This is a creature that that is is akin to 226 00:13:10,679 --> 00:13:12,880 Speaker 1: a sea slug, and it is it is figured out 227 00:13:12,880 --> 00:13:16,760 Speaker 1: how to use tools. Other examples, you have the blanket octopus, 228 00:13:16,760 --> 00:13:19,720 Speaker 1: which is immune to the man of war jellyfish sting. 229 00:13:19,880 --> 00:13:22,720 Speaker 1: So what he does he or she does is uh, 230 00:13:22,920 --> 00:13:26,440 Speaker 1: the octopus will glide down to the jellyfish, to this 231 00:13:26,640 --> 00:13:28,840 Speaker 1: man of war and a rip off a few tentacles, 232 00:13:29,160 --> 00:13:31,000 Speaker 1: and then it has this poisonous whip that it can 233 00:13:31,080 --> 00:13:34,160 Speaker 1: use to protect itself. In some of the tentacles too, 234 00:13:34,360 --> 00:13:38,160 Speaker 1: they float away and there's some bioluminescence involved as well. Right, 235 00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:41,160 Speaker 1: it's distract to make it say to the prey, well, 236 00:13:41,200 --> 00:13:43,720 Speaker 1: you know, am I going this way? Where am I 237 00:13:43,720 --> 00:13:45,640 Speaker 1: going that way? Yeah? I mean it's uh, I mean 238 00:13:45,640 --> 00:13:48,280 Speaker 1: it's it's rather simple tool use. They are not uh 239 00:13:48,280 --> 00:13:49,840 Speaker 1: and and we have a whole episode on tool use 240 00:13:49,880 --> 00:13:51,440 Speaker 1: that if you really want to get into like the 241 00:13:51,480 --> 00:13:55,080 Speaker 1: different levels of tool use and what they mean in 242 00:13:55,160 --> 00:13:58,000 Speaker 1: terms of a creature's intellect. So they're not doing anything 243 00:13:58,080 --> 00:14:01,199 Speaker 1: like like creating true our effects. They're not building bow 244 00:14:01,240 --> 00:14:04,120 Speaker 1: and arrows yet, but they are. But they are saying, hey, 245 00:14:04,360 --> 00:14:08,280 Speaker 1: that appendage on that creature there's is pretty uh, pretty hostile. 246 00:14:08,640 --> 00:14:10,640 Speaker 1: Uh and uh and it makes some pretty colors. I'm 247 00:14:10,640 --> 00:14:12,040 Speaker 1: gonna rip that off and I'm gonna use it for 248 00:14:12,160 --> 00:14:15,839 Speaker 1: my own purposes. Or that shell of that coconut is 249 00:14:15,880 --> 00:14:18,640 Speaker 1: actually pretty useful as a shelter for me. I'm gonna 250 00:14:18,679 --> 00:14:20,920 Speaker 1: take it and use it for that. Here here's one 251 00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:23,320 Speaker 1: thing that I think they completely lap us in in 252 00:14:23,400 --> 00:14:27,120 Speaker 1: terms of our own pincer grasp. As I had mentioned before, 253 00:14:27,160 --> 00:14:30,760 Speaker 1: they've got the ganglia on their tentacles and uh so 254 00:14:30,840 --> 00:14:34,800 Speaker 1: gangling are controlling every sucker, right, and they have exquisite 255 00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:37,040 Speaker 1: control over their body in that way, and they can 256 00:14:37,040 --> 00:14:39,200 Speaker 1: fold the two sides of it suckered together to form 257 00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:41,080 Speaker 1: a pincer grasp, and so it can do that with 258 00:14:41,120 --> 00:14:43,880 Speaker 1: every single one. So it has like a hundred pincer 259 00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:48,080 Speaker 1: grasp to our to our one little clumbing. It's pretty 260 00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:51,480 Speaker 1: pretty impressive. And like I said earlier, occupy are capable 261 00:14:51,480 --> 00:14:54,160 Speaker 1: of playing like their their minds are advanced enough that 262 00:14:55,240 --> 00:14:59,160 Speaker 1: they're constantly learning. They're they're they're they're geared to again, 263 00:14:59,440 --> 00:15:01,960 Speaker 1: live on this reach, live in the jungle nineteen seventies 264 00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:03,760 Speaker 1: New York. So if you take them out of that 265 00:15:03,880 --> 00:15:07,480 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies New York and you put them in suburbia, 266 00:15:07,520 --> 00:15:09,720 Speaker 1: they're gonna go a little stair crazy and started just 267 00:15:09,760 --> 00:15:11,480 Speaker 1: messing with stuff just to be messing with it. And 268 00:15:11,480 --> 00:15:15,440 Speaker 1: that's exactly what happens in aquarium environment. The stories are 269 00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:18,960 Speaker 1: just numerous. Anytime you if you talk to someone who's 270 00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:21,280 Speaker 1: working in an aquarium, or you know, look up any 271 00:15:21,280 --> 00:15:23,880 Speaker 1: accounts online and people say, oh, yeah, we found out 272 00:15:23,920 --> 00:15:26,840 Speaker 1: that this this octopus was sneaking out of the the 273 00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:30,440 Speaker 1: aquarium at night and eating sharks, or we we have 274 00:15:30,560 --> 00:15:35,760 Speaker 1: to constantly keep the octopus from taking the entire aquarium apart, 275 00:15:35,880 --> 00:15:40,080 Speaker 1: taking apart, uh you know, suction equipment, taking apart, cameras, 276 00:15:40,120 --> 00:15:44,680 Speaker 1: taking apart, submarine taking apart a robot submarine in one 277 00:15:44,680 --> 00:15:47,040 Speaker 1: of the tanks, part by part, which I thought was awesome. 278 00:15:47,280 --> 00:15:51,640 Speaker 1: There was other another account, um that one of the 279 00:15:51,760 --> 00:15:57,240 Speaker 1: keepers had given um some of the octopus, uh, some 280 00:15:57,360 --> 00:16:00,360 Speaker 1: shrimp and there was a slightly spoiled one, and so 281 00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:03,800 Speaker 1: the octopus actually stuffed it down the drain, whelming maintaining 282 00:16:03,800 --> 00:16:06,640 Speaker 1: eye contact with her as if to say, really, you're 283 00:16:06,640 --> 00:16:09,840 Speaker 1: gonna try to pass that by me. Yeah, And we've 284 00:16:09,880 --> 00:16:11,920 Speaker 1: actually studied this too, it's not all just like uh 285 00:16:12,160 --> 00:16:17,280 Speaker 1: sort of back room accounts. Uh. Read an interview with 286 00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:20,920 Speaker 1: Jennifer math Or, who's a comparative psychologist University of Lethbridge 287 00:16:20,920 --> 00:16:23,520 Speaker 1: in a bart of Canada, and um, she was part 288 00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:25,600 Speaker 1: of an experiment where they gave a pair of octopy 289 00:16:25,720 --> 00:16:29,400 Speaker 1: in an empty tank, a floating pill bottle. That's it, 290 00:16:29,560 --> 00:16:33,720 Speaker 1: just a floating pill bottle and two board occupy and uh, 291 00:16:33,920 --> 00:16:36,880 Speaker 1: they watched them in a seat like in twenty different 292 00:16:36,920 --> 00:16:39,720 Speaker 1: times like in a sequence. Uh, they watched them do 293 00:16:39,800 --> 00:16:41,840 Speaker 1: the She said, exactly the kind of thing that we 294 00:16:41,840 --> 00:16:43,640 Speaker 1: would do if we were to, say, bounce a ball 295 00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:45,920 Speaker 1: off a wall, like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape. 296 00:16:46,040 --> 00:16:49,040 Speaker 1: Just out of boredom. They started just bouncing this stuff 297 00:16:49,080 --> 00:16:53,160 Speaker 1: pill bottle around and flipping it around the tank, which 298 00:16:53,200 --> 00:16:55,560 Speaker 1: you know, of course, when you're in captivity, that's that's 299 00:16:55,720 --> 00:16:57,760 Speaker 1: going to happen. They're going to go a bit store crazy. 300 00:16:57,840 --> 00:17:00,840 Speaker 1: So it's important to have things to enrich and and 301 00:17:00,840 --> 00:17:04,000 Speaker 1: certainly they've shown themselves capable of solving mazes. Uh. They 302 00:17:04,040 --> 00:17:06,520 Speaker 1: like puzzles that Generally, if you see an octopus on 303 00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:09,400 Speaker 1: display and an aquarium, it will not be an empty container. 304 00:17:09,400 --> 00:17:12,520 Speaker 1: They'll have various things to interact with. They will be 305 00:17:12,560 --> 00:17:15,240 Speaker 1: given food inside of a toy of some kind where 306 00:17:15,280 --> 00:17:18,640 Speaker 1: they have to actually work at it because they're active 307 00:17:18,720 --> 00:17:21,520 Speaker 1: creatures and they need an active environment. Or sometimes they 308 00:17:21,560 --> 00:17:25,640 Speaker 1: are asked to predict the World Cup winner, like our 309 00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:30,880 Speaker 1: friend Paul the octopus who have born January eight died 310 00:17:31,040 --> 00:17:37,520 Speaker 1: October two, ten um. Anyone who follows um soccer or 311 00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:43,720 Speaker 1: cephalopod h news probably caught this one. But Paul lived 312 00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:47,760 Speaker 1: at the Sea Life Center in Oberhausen, Germany, and they 313 00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:50,880 Speaker 1: had this, uh, this gimmick set up where um he 314 00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:53,280 Speaker 1: was he was able to correctly predict the winner of 315 00:17:53,359 --> 00:17:56,679 Speaker 1: each of Germany's national football teams seven matches in the 316 00:17:56,720 --> 00:17:59,840 Speaker 1: two thousand ten f i f A World Cup as 317 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:03,560 Speaker 1: well was the outcome of the final? Um didn't he 318 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:06,160 Speaker 1: have like the for the outcome of the final wasn't 319 00:18:06,160 --> 00:18:11,359 Speaker 1: like accuracy? Yea and yeah. And then the other level 320 00:18:11,440 --> 00:18:13,560 Speaker 1: that you just said before that was like a six 321 00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:15,359 Speaker 1: or six yeah, And it was based on like where 322 00:18:15,359 --> 00:18:17,080 Speaker 1: you would pick food from one or one of two places. 323 00:18:17,119 --> 00:18:18,919 Speaker 1: It wasn't It's not like the octop I had a 324 00:18:18,920 --> 00:18:22,800 Speaker 1: Twitter account or a blog he was he was just 325 00:18:23,080 --> 00:18:25,680 Speaker 1: making basically a random choice. And then that's the big 326 00:18:25,680 --> 00:18:29,320 Speaker 1: criticism here. He wasn't actually making predictions and and there 327 00:18:29,400 --> 00:18:31,480 Speaker 1: was all there also been accusations that there was some 328 00:18:31,560 --> 00:18:33,639 Speaker 1: bias involved on the part of the people caring for 329 00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:36,800 Speaker 1: the octopus. But the food container had the team's logo 330 00:18:36,880 --> 00:18:39,560 Speaker 1: on it, right, Yeah, but but it was still an 331 00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:43,320 Speaker 1: exciting day in uh in cephalopod media, Hey, I mean 332 00:18:43,359 --> 00:18:45,840 Speaker 1: I gave some attention to cephalopods. So there you go. 333 00:18:46,280 --> 00:18:48,760 Speaker 1: That was a win. All right, Well, we mentioned the 334 00:18:48,840 --> 00:18:52,359 Speaker 1: nautilus earlier. Yes, so let's let's discuss the nautils, and 335 00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:57,760 Speaker 1: Nautilus is a much older organism and it's less advanced, 336 00:18:57,760 --> 00:19:02,760 Speaker 1: it's less bright compared to other cephal pods. It's tiny. Yeah, 337 00:19:02,800 --> 00:19:07,720 Speaker 1: they're the soul surviving family of an not alloids in general, 338 00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:10,080 Speaker 1: which includes like the nautilus and the paper nautilus, which 339 00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:13,600 Speaker 1: we mentioned in the previous episode. Soul surviving members of 340 00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:18,359 Speaker 1: the externally shelled cephalopod family that live that thrived in 341 00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:22,760 Speaker 1: tropical oceans four dred and fifty fifty million years ago. Yeah. 342 00:19:22,800 --> 00:19:25,760 Speaker 1: They diverge from the from their cousins squid, octopus and 343 00:19:25,800 --> 00:19:28,960 Speaker 1: cutlefish four hundred million years ago, which makes them more 344 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:31,520 Speaker 1: i should say, on the tiny scale in comparison. Yeah. 345 00:19:31,520 --> 00:19:34,520 Speaker 1: And they're fascinating organisms, just beautiful to to look at, 346 00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:37,600 Speaker 1: and the shells are amazing. But they have tiny, tiny 347 00:19:37,640 --> 00:19:40,840 Speaker 1: brains and they lack that dedicated learning region that we 348 00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:44,320 Speaker 1: see in other cephalopods. Yet what's amazing is that we've 349 00:19:44,760 --> 00:19:47,720 Speaker 1: in experiments, we've shown that they do have a form 350 00:19:47,760 --> 00:19:49,920 Speaker 1: of short term memory that we're still trying to really 351 00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:53,679 Speaker 1: understand how it works. Because they shouldn't really be capable 352 00:19:53,720 --> 00:19:57,720 Speaker 1: of any kind of higher brain function. UM. There again, 353 00:19:57,760 --> 00:20:00,720 Speaker 1: they're kind of the dull knife and the cephalopod drawer um. 354 00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:05,320 Speaker 1: But in experiments they found that if they use flashes 355 00:20:05,359 --> 00:20:10,879 Speaker 1: of light UM paired with with the food, they'll actually 356 00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:15,080 Speaker 1: be able to train the cephalopod to extend its tentacles. 357 00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:17,440 Speaker 1: Whenever there's that light, it begins to associate the light 358 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:20,160 Speaker 1: with food, and it will retain this memory for about 359 00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:23,040 Speaker 1: twenty four hours and then it's gone. So these guys 360 00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:26,120 Speaker 1: are kind of like a guy Pierce in Memento. They 361 00:20:27,400 --> 00:20:30,280 Speaker 1: only have the short term memory and then it fades. Well, 362 00:20:30,320 --> 00:20:34,439 Speaker 1: what I liked is that I get that right Memento. Ah, 363 00:20:34,560 --> 00:20:40,840 Speaker 1: well Memento, everything is in sort of reverse right like yeah, um. 364 00:20:41,320 --> 00:20:43,919 Speaker 1: But I really like the way new scientists described it. 365 00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:47,440 Speaker 1: It's called simple minded natolyst reveals Flash of Memory. That's 366 00:20:47,680 --> 00:20:50,600 Speaker 1: the article title. They say that first of all, the 367 00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:53,439 Speaker 1: food that was offered with the flash of light was 368 00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:57,639 Speaker 1: an irresistible mixture of pulverized telapia heads and water, So 369 00:20:57,680 --> 00:21:00,800 Speaker 1: the first of all it was ei um. And then 370 00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:05,280 Speaker 1: they said that that when um, when they were reacting 371 00:21:05,359 --> 00:21:08,840 Speaker 1: to it, that their tentacles were crazy. Now keep in 372 00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:11,440 Speaker 1: mind too that in comparison to the octopus is eight 373 00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:16,840 Speaker 1: arms um that Annalist has for for the females fifty 374 00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:19,439 Speaker 1: arms and males have nineties. So it is quite a 375 00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:23,159 Speaker 1: display when they are waving them around. Um. And that 376 00:21:23,240 --> 00:21:26,880 Speaker 1: they were panting too, which was interesting, the panting nautilus 377 00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:31,960 Speaker 1: by Rabbit Lamb. All right, well, we're gonna take a 378 00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:34,040 Speaker 1: quick break and when we come back, we're going to 379 00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:36,959 Speaker 1: deal with some squid intelligence. Specifically, we're going to talk 380 00:21:36,960 --> 00:21:40,760 Speaker 1: about the Humboldt squid also known as the blows rocks. 381 00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:49,239 Speaker 1: All right, we're back. The Humboldt squid also known as 382 00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:52,320 Speaker 1: a jumbo squid, also known again as say it for 383 00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:56,960 Speaker 1: us there much better than me? Yes, uh. In fact, 384 00:21:57,119 --> 00:22:01,160 Speaker 1: they were named that by Nexkin fisherman who who noted 385 00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:05,720 Speaker 1: their very aggressive behavior. Yeah occasionally. I mean their tales 386 00:22:05,760 --> 00:22:08,760 Speaker 1: of sailors dying at the hands of these guys, right, 387 00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:12,239 Speaker 1: I mean though they slit their throats. I don't think 388 00:22:12,240 --> 00:22:16,280 Speaker 1: they have shanks. They don't have shanks, but anyway they 389 00:22:16,520 --> 00:22:19,560 Speaker 1: have there have been some definite violent encounters with with 390 00:22:19,640 --> 00:22:22,040 Speaker 1: Humboldt squid, and they have this reputation as being a 391 00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:25,160 Speaker 1: very aggressive creature. Now there's been some fascinating experiments where 392 00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:28,320 Speaker 1: they like put they take decoy Humboldt squid down into 393 00:22:28,359 --> 00:22:31,000 Speaker 1: the deep and they actually they're able to explore. Then 394 00:22:31,040 --> 00:22:34,080 Speaker 1: they're not just mindlessly aggressive creatures and they're still very 395 00:22:34,119 --> 00:22:38,200 Speaker 1: intelligent animals. But um, under the right circumstances, they can 396 00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:42,280 Speaker 1: be extremely aggressive. But what's more interesting here for us 397 00:22:42,280 --> 00:22:45,639 Speaker 1: as we're discussing cephalopod intelligence, is that the idea that 398 00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:48,520 Speaker 1: they are able to coordinate with each other when yeah, yeah, 399 00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:52,080 Speaker 1: they hunt in schools containing as many as twelve hundred 400 00:22:52,160 --> 00:22:55,960 Speaker 1: other squid. They swim at speeds from three to fifteen 401 00:22:55,960 --> 00:22:57,960 Speaker 1: miles an hour, and they can eject themselves from the 402 00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:01,600 Speaker 1: water and glide through the air to escape nitors. Yeah yeah, 403 00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:04,280 Speaker 1: they have huge brains for their body size. And uh 404 00:23:04,320 --> 00:23:06,879 Speaker 1: and it's been suggested that they might actually be as 405 00:23:06,920 --> 00:23:10,760 Speaker 1: smart as dogs. Oh that's what William Gilly, who who 406 00:23:10,880 --> 00:23:13,480 Speaker 1: is featured in the book Cracking by Wendy Williams, actually 407 00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:16,080 Speaker 1: talks about that, and he studies them of course, um 408 00:23:16,119 --> 00:23:20,080 Speaker 1: it has a research center. But uh, yeah, as smart 409 00:23:20,119 --> 00:23:23,520 Speaker 1: as dogs, he claims. And uh he even says that 410 00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:26,119 Speaker 1: or not. He doesn't, but Wendy Williams does says that 411 00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:29,560 Speaker 1: divers Scott Castle once sall when fiddling with a latch 412 00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:32,719 Speaker 1: of an underwater cage he had just closed. So so 413 00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:38,120 Speaker 1: they have that same curious nature, that same problem solving ability. Yeah, 414 00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:41,600 Speaker 1: this is from the National Zoo form equals functioned. Uh. 415 00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:45,040 Speaker 1: These squid actually have two large optic lobes and the 416 00:23:45,119 --> 00:23:48,240 Speaker 1: squid brain, and that testifies the importance of vision for 417 00:23:48,359 --> 00:23:51,560 Speaker 1: locating praise for the prey for these guys and gals 418 00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:55,280 Speaker 1: and um, you know, they also rely on taste and 419 00:23:55,359 --> 00:23:58,280 Speaker 1: texture to locate food, and they have highly developed lobes 420 00:23:58,359 --> 00:24:02,760 Speaker 1: for storing chemical intact information. So that's interesting to hear 421 00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:06,639 Speaker 1: about the diver who was witnessing the squid trying to 422 00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:09,159 Speaker 1: open the lock, and the idea that you know it 423 00:24:09,320 --> 00:24:12,640 Speaker 1: is it has this ability to plan, and it has 424 00:24:12,640 --> 00:24:15,040 Speaker 1: this ability to store the tactile information and try to 425 00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:20,440 Speaker 1: figure out this lock. There are accounts of them actually 426 00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:24,320 Speaker 1: stealing car keys and driving as far as Mexico City. Yeah, 427 00:24:24,400 --> 00:24:27,440 Speaker 1: I read that. Definitely. Supposedly there's a there's a whole 428 00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:29,639 Speaker 1: pack of them that have like an apartment there. I 429 00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:33,479 Speaker 1: don't know what they do for a living. But oh fish, 430 00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:39,000 Speaker 1: of course, yeah, of course, um, and real quick, we 431 00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:42,720 Speaker 1: we mentioned the colossal squid in our our other episode 432 00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:45,680 Speaker 1: that we recorded this week on gigantism. But I found 433 00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:48,439 Speaker 1: it really interesting that the the the brain of the 434 00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:52,520 Speaker 1: colossal squid is actually donut shaped and the esophagus passes 435 00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:55,240 Speaker 1: straight through the center of it. So it's just a 436 00:24:55,280 --> 00:24:58,840 Speaker 1: different way of thinking about the brain of an organism 437 00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:02,840 Speaker 1: and how it fits into the overall morphology. Well, and 438 00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:04,720 Speaker 1: I think a lot of times too that we come 439 00:25:04,720 --> 00:25:07,359 Speaker 1: at it from our human centric um fashion and we 440 00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:13,080 Speaker 1: don't necessarily think about cephalopods um in this way. But um, 441 00:25:13,119 --> 00:25:17,000 Speaker 1: it is interesting to see that their mouths are encircled 442 00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:20,200 Speaker 1: with arms, whereas we sort of think about our own 443 00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:23,640 Speaker 1: flailing tentacles on either side of us. And that does 444 00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:27,359 Speaker 1: certainly um the color, the way or actually order the 445 00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:30,320 Speaker 1: way that their brains are arranged. So there is this 446 00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:32,920 Speaker 1: difference of arrangement in the in the brains of cephalopods 447 00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:37,280 Speaker 1: obviously versus humans. And we already talked about ganglion on tentacles, 448 00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:40,480 Speaker 1: but then you start to look at the eyes of cephalopods, 449 00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:42,600 Speaker 1: and this is where there is a major difference. There's 450 00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:46,240 Speaker 1: a lot of similarity, right. Cephalopods have camera eye camera 451 00:25:46,359 --> 00:25:49,320 Speaker 1: like eyes like ours, with a lens that projects images 452 00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:53,280 Speaker 1: onto the retina. The difference between humans and cephalopods, or 453 00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:57,120 Speaker 1: vertebrates and cephalopods in this case is that our many 454 00:25:57,240 --> 00:25:59,760 Speaker 1: armed friends don't have blind spots like we do, because 455 00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:01,600 Speaker 1: when we look at an image, there's a blind spot 456 00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:03,399 Speaker 1: in the middle, and that is owing to the fiber 457 00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:05,959 Speaker 1: optic nerve which is going in front of the retina 458 00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:09,480 Speaker 1: as opposed to behind the retina like a cephalopod. And 459 00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:12,120 Speaker 1: this is actually an upgrade. This is you know, this 460 00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:14,480 Speaker 1: is an advantage. This is something that we don't have 461 00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:19,400 Speaker 1: um And I also wanted to mention that another difference 462 00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:23,840 Speaker 1: is that cephalopods have horizontal pupils. So because the eyes 463 00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:27,040 Speaker 1: can rotate thanks to a balancing organ that they have 464 00:26:27,280 --> 00:26:32,480 Speaker 1: called a statusist, they can always keep their pupils horizontal 465 00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:37,320 Speaker 1: and it doesn't matter what position their body is, it's 466 00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:40,280 Speaker 1: always horizontal. So they just have fantastic visual coverage of 467 00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:44,200 Speaker 1: the world around it. Yeah, their brain can interpret visual 468 00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:47,399 Speaker 1: information no matter what their position is. They don't have 469 00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:49,480 Speaker 1: to account for the position of the eye like we do. 470 00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:52,600 Speaker 1: If you think about it. If we turn around quickly, uh, 471 00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:55,240 Speaker 1: you know we have we are very disoriented and we 472 00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:57,600 Speaker 1: have to sit there and figure out our location in 473 00:26:57,720 --> 00:27:00,359 Speaker 1: space before we can begin to take in data in 474 00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:02,679 Speaker 1: a way that's meaningful to us. But not these guys. 475 00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:05,760 Speaker 1: They can, I mean, this is an amazing piece of 476 00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:09,119 Speaker 1: machinery for them. They can also see polarized light and 477 00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:12,960 Speaker 1: this allows them to communicate by creating changing patterns on 478 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:18,480 Speaker 1: their skin and uh, and this I thought was fascinating. Um. 479 00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:20,800 Speaker 1: The reason for this that they can see the polarized 480 00:27:20,880 --> 00:27:25,440 Speaker 1: light is because the sephalo cephalopod eyes started out as 481 00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:29,040 Speaker 1: light sensitive skin cells that folded in words, to form 482 00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:31,840 Speaker 1: the structure that they have now, rather than as an 483 00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:35,400 Speaker 1: extension of the brain as as we have. So that's 484 00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:39,120 Speaker 1: again another difference between the way ways that their brains 485 00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:43,040 Speaker 1: and eyes work. So while we've both species, or not 486 00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:47,560 Speaker 1: just species, but both vertebrates and squid, they have reached 487 00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:51,920 Speaker 1: sort of similar conclusions with with their eyes, but from 488 00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:55,520 Speaker 1: different starting points. Yeah. Just to know that the eyes 489 00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:59,960 Speaker 1: that the root material there came from from skin, from 490 00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:05,359 Speaker 1: skin cells is very interesting, fascinating. So let's move on 491 00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:09,360 Speaker 1: to the last real cephalopod. We're gonna discuss here um 492 00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:12,639 Speaker 1: and we're really talking about the faberge egg of the 493 00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:18,520 Speaker 1: cephalopod world, the cuttlefish. Now, back in the stuff in 494 00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:20,520 Speaker 1: the Science Flave days right at the end, we did 495 00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:22,560 Speaker 1: in an episode on cuttlefish, and there's a lot of 496 00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:26,359 Speaker 1: great information that's cuttlefish specific in there. But we're gonna 497 00:28:26,359 --> 00:28:28,000 Speaker 1: talk about it a little bit here, especially as it 498 00:28:28,119 --> 00:28:31,159 Speaker 1: as it deals with intelligence, because the cuttlefish has one 499 00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:34,280 Speaker 1: of the largest brain to body size ratios of all 500 00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:38,680 Speaker 1: invertebrates and UH, and you see a lot of the 501 00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:43,000 Speaker 1: the the the really impressive attributes UH involving intelligence and 502 00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:47,840 Speaker 1: nervous systems in cephalopods are really highlighted in the cuttle 503 00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:52,800 Speaker 1: fish is design because you have uh rapid shifts in color. Uh. 504 00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:56,560 Speaker 1: They they're fairly social creatures. I mean, they're not social 505 00:28:56,680 --> 00:29:00,280 Speaker 1: and in the in a way that's really comparable to say, 506 00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:03,560 Speaker 1: you know, dogs or or primates, but there are there 507 00:29:03,600 --> 00:29:06,160 Speaker 1: are some very interesting social interactions here. There's a certain 508 00:29:06,200 --> 00:29:09,400 Speaker 1: amount of communication that takes place through the use of 509 00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:16,120 Speaker 1: their colorful skin, which contains these chromatophors that can lighten 510 00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:21,280 Speaker 1: and darken, and they can shift just really rapidly from 511 00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:24,800 Speaker 1: different colors and intensities, so it red, black, and yellow 512 00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:28,840 Speaker 1: are some of the chromatophores that emerge. But in addition 513 00:29:28,840 --> 00:29:31,920 Speaker 1: to that, there's this luminosity, so it gives a greater range. 514 00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:35,560 Speaker 1: And in fact with with other sea creatures like fish, 515 00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:37,680 Speaker 1: they have four rods in their eyes and they're able 516 00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:40,640 Speaker 1: to perceive more color than say our three rodded eyes. 517 00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:44,880 Speaker 1: So when when we see these incredible displays of color 518 00:29:45,880 --> 00:29:49,200 Speaker 1: from cephalopods, keep in mind that we're not even really 519 00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:52,520 Speaker 1: seeing the full spectrum, right, And these creatures that cuttle 520 00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:56,080 Speaker 1: fish are just remarkable to to see at an aquarium. Now, 521 00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:59,120 Speaker 1: generally you have to wait for a large pack of 522 00:29:59,480 --> 00:30:01,960 Speaker 1: people with cell phone cameras to get out of the 523 00:30:01,960 --> 00:30:03,960 Speaker 1: way because you go to an aquarium you want to 524 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:07,520 Speaker 1: take a really bad, direct flash cellphone photo of everything there. 525 00:30:07,560 --> 00:30:10,240 Speaker 1: Apparently that's the apparently the big thing these days. But 526 00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:12,920 Speaker 1: if you can actually get the tank to yourself for 527 00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:15,320 Speaker 1: a little bit, they're just really fascinating to watch the 528 00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:18,280 Speaker 1: color shifts that they kind of hover. For starters, they're not, 529 00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:20,720 Speaker 1: they're a lot they're a lot more interesting to look 530 00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:24,120 Speaker 1: at an aquarium because octopi uh you know, you may 531 00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:26,760 Speaker 1: catch them when they're active, but they're they're gonna be 532 00:30:26,800 --> 00:30:29,280 Speaker 1: sticking to the corners and and and all that. Where 533 00:30:29,400 --> 00:30:32,600 Speaker 1: the cuttlefish is going to hover out there in in 534 00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:34,680 Speaker 1: in the middle, and he's gonna kind of here, she's 535 00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:37,440 Speaker 1: gonna kind of hover around, has this little hover skirt 536 00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:40,600 Speaker 1: that goes around the edges. Um. And then they're gonna 537 00:30:41,080 --> 00:30:43,880 Speaker 1: slowly change colors, and then there may be a drastic 538 00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:46,959 Speaker 1: change in color. Yeah, and all of that is predicated 539 00:30:47,120 --> 00:30:49,920 Speaker 1: on the fact that they are controlled by nerves, so 540 00:30:50,040 --> 00:30:52,960 Speaker 1: it gives them that instantaneous color change. And when we 541 00:30:53,040 --> 00:30:55,440 Speaker 1: talk about those chromatoporce we are talking about tens of 542 00:30:55,520 --> 00:30:58,680 Speaker 1: thousands of organs here that are controlling that. And so 543 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:02,000 Speaker 1: think of it similar to the way that pixels form 544 00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:05,320 Speaker 1: on images of a computer screen. That's what you're seeing 545 00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:09,280 Speaker 1: on their skin basically. Um, you talked about their communication 546 00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:14,480 Speaker 1: and their their level of social ness, and I wanted 547 00:31:14,520 --> 00:31:17,240 Speaker 1: to bring up Gene Bowl of Penn miller's Ville University. 548 00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:20,800 Speaker 1: She's a scientist and she says that they the males 549 00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:24,160 Speaker 1: have all kinds of really impressive displays and that in fact, 550 00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:30,160 Speaker 1: the cuttlefish can signultaneously just one side of his butdet 551 00:31:30,320 --> 00:31:34,520 Speaker 1: body to show a dominant display towards other males, while 552 00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:37,920 Speaker 1: um the other side of his body shows a calm 553 00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:41,600 Speaker 1: display towards a potential mate. So really aggressive pattern on 554 00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:44,240 Speaker 1: the left where where a foe is. And on the right, 555 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:46,880 Speaker 1: I don't know exactly what it would be. Let's say 556 00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:49,800 Speaker 1: a little heart design. It's not really hard, but it's 557 00:31:49,840 --> 00:31:51,560 Speaker 1: kind of like he's flexing the muscle and looking all 558 00:31:51,640 --> 00:31:53,400 Speaker 1: bad on one side, but then he's he's kind of 559 00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:55,760 Speaker 1: smiling and winking out of the other eye. And this 560 00:31:55,920 --> 00:32:00,600 Speaker 1: is interesting. During mating, they display a zebra pattern, which 561 00:32:00,680 --> 00:32:05,920 Speaker 1: I just automatically always associate with wrestlers bodybuilders because always 562 00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:09,800 Speaker 1: wearing the pants with the zebra patterns are popular with 563 00:32:09,880 --> 00:32:14,000 Speaker 1: some of the boys. But but this is intricate, right, 564 00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:16,520 Speaker 1: I mean, this is ah, this is a whole language 565 00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:19,680 Speaker 1: that we don't necessarily have access to, that we can 566 00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:22,760 Speaker 1: witness and it can tell us something about ourselves to 567 00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:26,320 Speaker 1: some degree, but we can't even fully imagine we don't 568 00:32:26,400 --> 00:32:29,280 Speaker 1: have the language ourselves to it. There's another interesting thing 569 00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:31,640 Speaker 1: that goes on with cephalopod I mean not sephal pod, 570 00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:35,520 Speaker 1: cuttlefish mating that's really fascinating. And that's where you'll have 571 00:32:35,680 --> 00:32:39,240 Speaker 1: these dominant cuttlefish, like these big, brutish looking cuttlefish that 572 00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:41,040 Speaker 1: are that are not the cute little guys that you 573 00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:44,680 Speaker 1: didn't see the aquarium, the big, rugged, old man catulu 574 00:32:44,760 --> 00:32:47,800 Speaker 1: looking cuttlefish, and they're they're really bossy and they're getting 575 00:32:47,800 --> 00:32:50,400 Speaker 1: the fights over the females because you know, they're like 576 00:32:50,640 --> 00:32:52,360 Speaker 1: they really want to mate with the with the females. 577 00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:54,840 Speaker 1: But then you'll have the smaller males that will that 578 00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:58,960 Speaker 1: will disguise themselves as females, like they'll like a lot 579 00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:01,880 Speaker 1: of cephalopods. The cuttle fish has a has a lot 580 00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:06,080 Speaker 1: of control over just how drug queens I'm thinking boosom bodies. Yeah, yeah, 581 00:33:06,080 --> 00:33:07,960 Speaker 1: it's that kind of thing. Like they know that they 582 00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:09,960 Speaker 1: don't stand a chance walking in there as a small 583 00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:12,280 Speaker 1: male because they're just gonna get beat up and tore up, 584 00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:15,120 Speaker 1: and then the big male is gonna mate. So they 585 00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:18,840 Speaker 1: disguised themselves as a female and then they move in close. 586 00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:21,680 Speaker 1: And then the big beefy cuttlefish he looks at this 587 00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:23,160 Speaker 1: and it's like, oh, yeah, it looks like I got 588 00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:26,080 Speaker 1: two days for the night. Uh. You know, that's a 589 00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:31,080 Speaker 1: total win. For me. Meanwhile, the disguised smaller male actually 590 00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:33,080 Speaker 1: gets in there in mates with the female. Okay, so 591 00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:36,440 Speaker 1: you really just did um talk about the premise for 592 00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:41,120 Speaker 1: the sitcom Boom Bodies was Queen. Well, actually, the premise 593 00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:42,880 Speaker 1: was really that the rent was much more or a 594 00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:45,320 Speaker 1: favorite at this all women's boarding. But they use that 595 00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:48,640 Speaker 1: to their advantage to to advance their agendas with the 596 00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:54,320 Speaker 1: ladies there. The other really awesome thing about cuttlefish, um 597 00:33:54,960 --> 00:33:57,560 Speaker 1: that that that I may have mentioned on here before 598 00:33:57,720 --> 00:34:02,800 Speaker 1: is their use of ptomorphs, which means false form. And 599 00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:05,600 Speaker 1: what they'll do is a pseudomorph is a bubble of 600 00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:09,960 Speaker 1: ink surrounded by mucus, and it occupies the same amount 601 00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:12,320 Speaker 1: of space as the cuttle fish. It's a decoy. So 602 00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:14,799 Speaker 1: what will happen If they're in a situation where they're 603 00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:18,359 Speaker 1: they're threatened, they will shift their color suddenly to where 604 00:34:18,360 --> 00:34:21,000 Speaker 1: they're really dark like the surrounding. Then they'll shoot out 605 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:24,040 Speaker 1: the pseudomorph and then they'll they'll turbo out of there 606 00:34:24,200 --> 00:34:26,440 Speaker 1: with their jets. Yeah. Their jet propulsion, by the way, 607 00:34:26,520 --> 00:34:29,960 Speaker 1: is amazing. So they create a copy of themselves more 608 00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:31,640 Speaker 1: or less. I mean, it's not it's not like an 609 00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:35,800 Speaker 1: artistic expression. But they'll they'll create, you know, appropriate mass 610 00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:38,880 Speaker 1: replica of themselves that is just ain't conside of mucus, 611 00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:41,799 Speaker 1: and then they'll jet away really fast at the same time, 612 00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:43,680 Speaker 1: so it's like slide of hand where they leave the 613 00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:46,279 Speaker 1: decoy where they just were and they're already jetting away. 614 00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:49,040 Speaker 1: And then when something tries to eat these pseudomorph of course, 615 00:34:49,239 --> 00:34:51,399 Speaker 1: then they just get a whole bunch of ink, which 616 00:34:51,400 --> 00:34:56,440 Speaker 1: also contains dopamine and el dopa, a precursor to the dopamine, 617 00:34:56,520 --> 00:35:00,120 Speaker 1: which may temporarily paralyze the sense of smell uh the 618 00:35:00,200 --> 00:35:04,719 Speaker 1: creature that so it's just a fantastic uh and deceptive 619 00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:08,239 Speaker 1: means of self defense in terms of their intelligence again 620 00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:11,960 Speaker 1: gene bowl Uh. The scientists devised a couple of experiments 621 00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:15,000 Speaker 1: to study this, rather than just sort of the stimulus 622 00:35:15,080 --> 00:35:19,000 Speaker 1: response experiments that you see sometimes um again. In the 623 00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:21,960 Speaker 1: book Crack and Winny, Williams describes this experiment as a 624 00:35:22,040 --> 00:35:25,360 Speaker 1: tank in the shape of a clock with escape routes 625 00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:27,920 Speaker 1: two of them, only one open at a time, and 626 00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:30,320 Speaker 1: that's at the three o'clock position, and the six o'clock 627 00:35:30,880 --> 00:35:33,120 Speaker 1: excuse me, the nine o'clock, three and nine three and nine. 628 00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:36,600 Speaker 1: And so the cuttlefish enter through the six o'clock position 629 00:35:36,719 --> 00:35:39,520 Speaker 1: and then immediately they see a queue at the twelve 630 00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:43,319 Speaker 1: o'clock position. So the que is either algae or brick. 631 00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:46,920 Speaker 1: Algae would indicate like, hey, on the right, that's your 632 00:35:47,320 --> 00:35:51,080 Speaker 1: escape hatch. Um the brick would indicate on the left, 633 00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:53,520 Speaker 1: that's your that's going to be your escape hatch. So 634 00:35:53,640 --> 00:35:56,719 Speaker 1: they actually get to learn these cues that hey, okay, 635 00:35:56,760 --> 00:35:58,759 Speaker 1: when I see the algae, I know to take a 636 00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:03,359 Speaker 1: ninety degree turn to the right. And it's fascinating. She said, 637 00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:07,200 Speaker 1: this was um, this process of if then propositions that 638 00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:10,000 Speaker 1: we learned, and that in humans that's represented as the 639 00:36:10,080 --> 00:36:14,279 Speaker 1: first steps in development of logic and our ability to 640 00:36:14,440 --> 00:36:18,080 Speaker 1: use reason and decision making. It's fascinating, alright. So one 641 00:36:18,160 --> 00:36:21,919 Speaker 1: final squid to mention, and this one is is even 642 00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:26,120 Speaker 1: even more dubious than the idea of of ancient krakens 643 00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:29,759 Speaker 1: creating art out of dead right dolphins, and that is 644 00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:32,600 Speaker 1: the idea of the mega squid, which was featured on 645 00:36:32,680 --> 00:36:36,439 Speaker 1: the TV show Future Future is Wild uh and which 646 00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:40,799 Speaker 1: you can believe occasionally catch on various Discovery Channel, UM 647 00:36:40,960 --> 00:36:44,040 Speaker 1: Discovery Channel or Animal Planet just check local listings that 648 00:36:44,120 --> 00:36:47,600 Speaker 1: pops up from time to time. But it was this 649 00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:51,640 Speaker 1: you know, sspeculative episode where they're talking about the future. 650 00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:55,319 Speaker 1: What if humans weren't around, what might evolve and fill 651 00:36:55,440 --> 00:36:57,800 Speaker 1: that void? What would become the dominant species? And so 652 00:36:57,920 --> 00:37:00,160 Speaker 1: they had some some c g I stuff going on 653 00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:03,480 Speaker 1: and some some fabulous ideas of what might happen. And 654 00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:06,000 Speaker 1: one of the cooler things that they introduced was a 655 00:37:06,120 --> 00:37:09,480 Speaker 1: mega squid, which was a twelve foot tall, eight ton 656 00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:14,480 Speaker 1: terrestrial air breathing squid that roams the northern forests of 657 00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:17,799 Speaker 1: a humanless Earth. And it's a pretty cool design. Mean, 658 00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:20,160 Speaker 1: it's on one level's kind of ridiculous because with the 659 00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:24,160 Speaker 1: whole air pressure issue first of all, right, going from 660 00:37:24,239 --> 00:37:30,000 Speaker 1: from from the the the pressure in the ocean to land. Yeah, 661 00:37:30,120 --> 00:37:33,120 Speaker 1: it's it's crazy to think. But that their their argument 662 00:37:33,280 --> 00:37:35,759 Speaker 1: was that it's not just a situation of a giant 663 00:37:35,800 --> 00:37:38,320 Speaker 1: squid crawling out or a giant octopus crawling out of 664 00:37:38,360 --> 00:37:40,879 Speaker 1: the water. It would have been like a slow evolutionary 665 00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:45,960 Speaker 1: procession years later. Yeah, And they and it had legs, 666 00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:50,080 Speaker 1: which they they made the case that each of these legs, 667 00:37:50,120 --> 00:37:52,760 Speaker 1: which looked kind of like an elephant leg Uh contain 668 00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:57,040 Speaker 1: a network of circular and vertical muscles that form these 669 00:37:57,120 --> 00:37:59,080 Speaker 1: limbs and make them strong enough to carry this eight 670 00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:04,360 Speaker 1: ton weight. Uh. They have vocal sac that vibrates to 671 00:38:04,400 --> 00:38:07,080 Speaker 1: produce sound. That was the other thing that they came 672 00:38:07,160 --> 00:38:09,919 Speaker 1: up with for the mega squid. And uh they also 673 00:38:10,040 --> 00:38:13,520 Speaker 1: have two large tentacles that they grab things out of 674 00:38:13,560 --> 00:38:16,399 Speaker 1: the woods to eat. So it's kind of neat. It's 675 00:38:16,440 --> 00:38:19,879 Speaker 1: it's like I said, don't don't make any any hard 676 00:38:20,160 --> 00:38:24,920 Speaker 1: vegas bets on on mega squids taking over the planet 677 00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:28,040 Speaker 1: any time in the distant future even, But but it's 678 00:38:28,080 --> 00:38:30,400 Speaker 1: a cool idea, and it's it's interesting to think of 679 00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:35,480 Speaker 1: cephalopods not merely as this interesting creature confined to the ocean, 680 00:38:35,920 --> 00:38:40,719 Speaker 1: but one of ours more remarkable creatures that maybe could 681 00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:44,240 Speaker 1: become the primary player in a future Well in that context, 682 00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:47,520 Speaker 1: it is really interesting to to imagine what the brain 683 00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:51,640 Speaker 1: would look like once it became terrestrial, because as Bull 684 00:38:51,719 --> 00:38:54,480 Speaker 1: had said before, is that one of the things that's 685 00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:57,880 Speaker 1: really exciting to her about sufflage seplode intelligence is that 686 00:38:58,719 --> 00:39:01,319 Speaker 1: we know that their relatives are arms and snails. Yeah, 687 00:39:01,560 --> 00:39:05,520 Speaker 1: not not so smart. They're um so whatever happened to 688 00:39:05,560 --> 00:39:08,600 Speaker 1: the cephalo cephalopods was different, and she wants to get 689 00:39:08,680 --> 00:39:12,680 Speaker 1: to the bottom of why they're using their intelligence, Why 690 00:39:12,880 --> 00:39:15,799 Speaker 1: why their brains developed in the way they that they did, 691 00:39:16,480 --> 00:39:19,040 Speaker 1: and um, what does that tell us about ourselves? As 692 00:39:19,040 --> 00:39:21,920 Speaker 1: we discussed in the Gigantism episode, as animals get bigger, 693 00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:25,839 Speaker 1: they have fewer predators and and certainly the mega squid 694 00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:31,400 Speaker 1: is not going to have the survival challenge that the 695 00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:34,160 Speaker 1: smaller cephalopods have evolved to deal with. So you can 696 00:39:34,200 --> 00:39:39,000 Speaker 1: imagine this thing might be pretty stupid. Yeah, I mean intellectually, 697 00:39:39,040 --> 00:39:40,239 Speaker 1: it just might. And there might not be a lot 698 00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:41,600 Speaker 1: going on because I don't have to do is wander 699 00:39:41,640 --> 00:39:43,840 Speaker 1: around the forest and eat other c g I creatures. 700 00:39:44,040 --> 00:39:49,799 Speaker 1: So little Jar Jar here, you know, all right? As 701 00:39:49,840 --> 00:39:52,320 Speaker 1: we close out here our episode on the Mind of 702 00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:53,680 Speaker 1: the Crack, and I thought it would be fun to 703 00:39:53,760 --> 00:39:57,800 Speaker 1: bring in Jonathan Strickling, co host of the Tech Stuff podcast, 704 00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:01,920 Speaker 1: to read The Cracking by Alfred Lloyd. Yes and his 705 00:40:02,040 --> 00:40:04,920 Speaker 1: poem is based on an old Norse legend of gigantic 706 00:40:05,040 --> 00:40:09,880 Speaker 1: sea monsters who prey on ships and drag them underneath 707 00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:14,759 Speaker 1: the ocean, below the thunders of the other deep, far 708 00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:20,200 Speaker 1: far beneath in the abysmal sea, his ancient, dreamless, uninvaded 709 00:40:20,400 --> 00:40:25,000 Speaker 1: sleep the krack and sleepeth. Faintest sunlights flee about his 710 00:40:25,080 --> 00:40:29,600 Speaker 1: shadowy sides above, and swell huge sponges of millennial growth 711 00:40:29,680 --> 00:40:32,799 Speaker 1: in height and far away into the sickly light from 712 00:40:32,840 --> 00:40:38,120 Speaker 1: many a wondrous, grotten, secret cell, unnumbered and enormous polypi 713 00:40:38,320 --> 00:40:43,600 Speaker 1: winnow with giant arms the slumbering green. They're happy lane 714 00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:48,160 Speaker 1: for ages and will lie battening upon huge seaworms in 715 00:40:48,280 --> 00:40:51,759 Speaker 1: his sleep until the latter fire shall heat the deep. Then, 716 00:40:52,040 --> 00:40:56,000 Speaker 1: once by man and angels to be seen in roaring, 717 00:40:56,239 --> 00:41:03,120 Speaker 1: he shall rise and on the surface die. So there 718 00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:06,680 Speaker 1: you go. Fantastic reading from Jonathan Strickland if you if 719 00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:08,839 Speaker 1: you haven't checked out tech Stuff, be sure to check 720 00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:12,400 Speaker 1: that out. It's a great podcast. UH. Chris and Jonathan 721 00:41:12,480 --> 00:41:17,560 Speaker 1: tackle all sorts of gadgety, techy nerdy topics in UH 722 00:41:17,760 --> 00:41:21,719 Speaker 1: in awesome form, and they are wonderful punsters. So if 723 00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:23,560 Speaker 1: you have something you would like to share with us 724 00:41:23,600 --> 00:41:27,520 Speaker 1: about the mind of the kracking, about the possibility that 725 00:41:27,640 --> 00:41:30,600 Speaker 1: this cracking theory is is true, or maybe you have 726 00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:33,719 Speaker 1: thoughts about the mega squid. Maybe you have worked with 727 00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:36,120 Speaker 1: the cephalopods at one point or another and have some 728 00:41:36,760 --> 00:41:40,040 Speaker 1: some yeah, or you know, if you have some occupied 729 00:41:40,560 --> 00:41:43,160 Speaker 1: escate stories, let us know about those. If you have 730 00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:48,319 Speaker 1: ever um snuck away from work and left a bunch 731 00:41:48,400 --> 00:41:51,800 Speaker 1: of squid ink inside of a thin layer of mucus 732 00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:54,480 Speaker 1: in your place as a decoy, we would love to 733 00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:56,360 Speaker 1: hear about that as well. You can find us on 734 00:41:56,800 --> 00:41:59,320 Speaker 1: Facebook where we are stuff to blow your mind, and 735 00:41:59,440 --> 00:42:01,759 Speaker 1: you can find on Twitter where our handles blow the mind, 736 00:42:02,120 --> 00:42:04,160 Speaker 1: and you can drop us a line at blow the 737 00:42:04,200 --> 00:42:12,960 Speaker 1: Mind at discovery dot com. For more on this and 738 00:42:13,040 --> 00:42:15,839 Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, visit how stuff Works dot com.