The Octopus Man :: essays papers

The Octopus ManThey change color, texture, and body shape... rent three hearts... be leafy vegetable powered... book members in every sea of the world... have inspired legends and stories since recorded history... are the most intelligent of every(prenominal) invertibrates, yet are related to clams and oysters... have eyes and senses that gibe our own... and quarter make their own smoke screen decoys out of ink. They are Cephalopods - octopi, cuttlefish, squids, etc. - and they are far more fascinating than one talent think.Cephalopoda means, head foot, and they certaintly are of an ancient group... they first appeared several(prenominal) million years before the first primitive fish began to blow the oceans, in the late Cambrian era. They were once one of the dominant breeding forms in the sea, yet today there are only 650 or so living species left. (This may seem like quite a bit, but compare it to the 30,000 living species of bony fish on this orbiter and it loses it s prominence.) Yet in terms of productivity, some scientists feel that cephalopods are slake giving fish a run for their money.With so much knowledge on cephalopods available, it becomes neccesarry to narrow down the catagories. Thus, I have determined to hang glide in on the order Octopoda as the main pore of this paper, a group on animals which contains, in my opinion, some of the more kindle and intelligent creatues on this planet.Members of the order octopoda have eight arms. everywhere the corse of evolution, the trend has been a reduction of shell size. Octopi, having no shells at all, have carried this trend the furthest. The suborder ncerrata contains the familiar, unfinned octopuses that humans know the most about. Octopi have evolved mechanisms to protect themselves from predators. almost of the amazing abilities of octopi include their ability to change theircolor, texture, and apparent size to fire ink and to modify their environment to suit themselves. Oct opi are able to jet water through their siphon by contracting their mantel to allow quick, explosive thrust. They have the intelligence and ability to get into and out of fishermens crabmeat and fish traps and to get under an undergravel filter plate in an aquarium. They canister adapt to new situations and appear to be curious about their surroundings. Octopi can use their bodies as a nets to trap fish.