Celebrating Cephalopods

Mimic octopus (credit: American Museum of Natural History)

Appreciating Cephalopods is celebrated for a week each year and is returning soon.

These shape-shifting marine creatures include octopus, cuttlefish, squid, and the chambered nautilus. Most cephalopods have skins that is covered with chemo-sensitive suckers, color-altering pigments, and bodies with brains that can stretch their physical abilities like a contortionist. They are like space aliens already living here on Earth. Understanding how these sea creatures can mimic and adapt to their surroundings offer numerous opportunities for bio-mimicry applications ranging from medical adhesives, to fabrics, and delightfully animated movie characters. Cuttlefish showcase the extent of this visual deception.

People praised the documentary film, My Octopus Teacher which won an Academy Award. It is time to pay closer attention to these wonders of the marine world. Cephalopods are another example of how little we know about life on Earth. WHB

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