likes to play recorder , draw and dance, have artistic talent, and dreams of becoming an artist; there are six tentacles, two for hands, and the other four are often used to move with their feet in synchronization... octopus As an important character in " SpongeBob ", it has unique charm because of its cold appearance and kind heart, which is impressive.
"SpongeBob SquarePants" Stills
In fact, octopus is a common marine creature is indeed a bit like the character setting of Octopus. This invertebrate with the highest IQ has a unique "inner beauty".
Written by Bian Li Chen Siqing (Huanghai Fisheries Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Fisheries Sciences) Li Xinzheng (Institute of Oceanography, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
When people first discovered an octopus, they did not realize how smart it was. On the contrary, they even thought it was a little stupid. More than 2,000 years ago, Ancient Greek philosopher and thinker Aristotle commented on octopuses and said, "They look stupid and can't avoid repeated fiddling with human hands. They are easily caught."
In fact, this is because octopuses are curious by nature and like to explore the surrounding environment. The palms appearing in front of them just satisfy their curiosity, not because they lack intelligence. As people's understanding of octopus continues to deepen, and they observe its powerful color-changing ability, learning ability and extraordinary nervous system , they suddenly realized that octopus is so smart. Some scientists believe that the IQ of octopus is close to that of 2-year-old children in humans, which is unique among invertebrates.
Invisible in the sea
Octopus is a master of ambushing prey. He often hides behind stones or in empty shells to wait for the prey to approach. At this time, the octopus will change its body color and completely integrate itself into the environment. The prey will be caught without detecting any strangeness. What is even more surprising is that this color change is done instantly, and it disappears into the environment in the blink of an eye. Such resilience is inseparable from the nervous system of the octopus.
Typical neural reflex arcs usually include receptors, afferent nerves, neural center , efferent nerves and effector . Receptor is responsible for receiving external stimuli. The afferent nerve transmits the stimulus signal to the nerve center. The nerve center analyzes the afferent signal and issues instructions. The efferent nerve then passes the instruction information to the effector, and the effector responds accordingly according to the instructions.
Octopus hidden in a piece of seaweed
Octopus color change process requires first observing the surrounding environment, passing environmental information to the brain, and the brain analyzes and interprets this information, and then sends specific operation instructions for color change to the skin. Tens of thousands of pigment cells on the skin then changes according to the instructions, completely completing the reflective arc , and finally achieving color change. The whole process is completed in just a few seconds, which makes people sigh at the efficiency of the octopus nervous system.
see me72 change
Mitative refers to an ecological phenomenon in which a organism simulates another organism in terms of morphology, behavior and other characteristics, thereby benefiting. There is a species of octopus called mimicry octopus . It can imitate at least ten species of lionfish, flounder , sea snake and other creatures according to changes in the environment, through changes in body color, body shape and behavior, perfectly interpreting the "Look at me 72 Changes" in the ocean. The lionfish is covered with long sharp fins. In order to imitate it, the mimic octopus will spread its wrists and feet in all directions and imitate its slow swimming in the sea water. When imitating the flounder, the mimic octopus will put its wrists and feet behind it, shrink its neck, and press its body flat; when the mimic octopus needs to transform into a sea snake, it will hide its six wrists into the mud and sand, leaving only two wrists outside, and then turn into black and white stripes unique to the sea snake.
Microsive Octopus
In order to achieve mimicry, mimicry octopus first needs to learn the characteristics of other animals in the preparation stage, memorize this information, and confirm that it can imitate it; when a situation really happens, mimicry octopus also needs to clarify the imitation plan according to different opponents and imitate it accurately and quickly in order to escape danger. Without a strong brain, long-term memory, judgment decisions and rapid responses involved in mimicry are difficult to achieve.
Smart and happy life
Escape master
Octopus with his smart brain often performs the feat of "golden cicada escapes the shell". Researchers have long discovered that after putting the octopus into a specially made maze, it can always find the right escape path on its own and escape the constraints of the maze.
In 2016, an octopus named INKY successfully "jailbreaked" in the aquarium of New Zealand . That night, the staff forgot to cover the top cover of the water tank, which gave INKY an opportunity. It escaped from the gap in the water tank head, groped forward on the ground, drilled into the drain pipe mouth, crawled along the drain pipe , and finally returned to the sea and regained freedom. The next day, the staff solved the case through the residual water stains on the ground. Some people also discovered that octopus can escape from the sealed jar where the lid is tightened. The octopus locked in the jar has actually developed a way to unscrew the lid by itself, which is amazing.
adaptable according to local conditions
Octopus can strive to create conditions suitable for its own survival according to the specific environment. Octopuses usually have their own nests. In order to prevent the nest from being snatched away by other creatures, some octopuses will take the initiative to pick up sand and gravel after leaving the nest, making it difficult for potential competitors to discover their nests. An octopus living in the tropical region likes to use coconut shells to avoid enemy attacks. They drill into the coconut shells and "carry" the coconut shells to move under the sea. When moving, the octopus only stretched out two wrist feet, and the swing of the wrist feet forward and backward drives the whole body forward, just like walking on stilts, which looks very funny.
An octopus curled up in a coconut shell
playful
In addition to dealing with survival challenges, octopus is still a playful guy, and play is a feature that only high-intelligent creatures have. researchers put an empty plastic bottle into the water tank to see how the octopus living in it reacts. Driven by curiosity, the octopus first touched the plastic bottle with his wrist to see what this uninvited guest was going to do. After touching for a while, the octopus began to spray water into the plastic bottle. The bottle hit the side wall of the water tank under the action of the water flow, and then it bounced back to the octopus. This aroused great interest from the octopus. It sprayed water into the plastic bottle with interest again, and then left satisfied after repeating it for more than 20 times.
In 2019, researchers even discovered that octopus may dream! They photographed a sleeping octopus constantly changing its body color, and the body color changed very similarly to when it usually preys, so the octopus may be dreaming of catching crabs and eating them at this time.
The reason for high IQ
Why do octopuses evolve so many complex behaviors? What about having such a high intelligence? There is no accurate answer yet. It is generally believed that this is related to the survival state of the octopus: as a soft and delicious mollusk, , many predators are eyeing the octopus; the octopus lacks powerful offensive weapons and is not agile in action, making it difficult for it to gain an absolute advantage when facing prey. Without sharp spears and hard shields, the innate conditions of the octopus are not good. If you want to survive, you can only think of other ways, and this way is to make yourself smarter.
Octopus has gone very far and extreme on the road to making itself smart, bringing its mollusc compatriots and even all invertebrate peers to a long distance.The nervous system of molluscs is mainly composed of ganglion . Gangles refer to nodular structures formed by the collection of nerve cells. The ganglion of molluscs such as snail and oysters are relatively small, with low aggregation, and it is difficult to meet the needs of complex behaviors. The ganglion of the octopus is highly concentrated, forming a tissue similar to the brain of vertebrates, and the brain partially forms different areas to perform different functions. The memory and learning ability of octopus comes from this, helping them win in the cruel competition for survival.
Octopus raises its body with eight wrists to observe the surrounding environment
The distribution of nerve cells in the nervous system of the octopus is also unique. One third of the nerve cells are concentrated in the head and two thirds are concentrated in the 8 wrists. has a considerable part of the sensory information that can be processed directly in the nerve cells of the wrist without passing through the brain, This makes the octopus' wrist have a certain degree of autonomy. So we will see that after the octopus' wrist is removed, even if it is still motivated after a long period of time, the suction cup on the inner side maintains suction force. Most of the nerve cells in vertebrates are concentrated in the head. It can be said that they have two completely different nervous systems from octopus, but both systems are very efficient and reflect extraordinary intelligence levels.
