Biology

[Nautipus]

Neat

I'd be interested to see if this wasnt a mutation but maybe a recessive trait. A very rare recessive trait maybe.

Please discuss.

[Count Comfect]

Well, at least that's 2 fewer arms to terrorize us with.

I wonder if it's a beneficial or a harmful mutation; although it probably doesn't matter, since as you point out it's almost certainly incredibly recessive.

Still awesome though.

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Interesting. We'll probably know more about the success of it as a trait if he gets lucky.

AND, speaking of getting lucky...
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...n-objects.html

Discuss.

[Count Comfect]

Eh, so guys want to handle women when they see them (nearly-)naked. There's a shock. The sample size is also extremely small and consists almost entirely of college students.

Also, this "some of the men studied showed no activity in the part of the brain that usually responds when a person ponders another's intentions" is needlessly shock-producing. If you read further, you find out which 'some' that is - it's "the men who scored higher as "hostile sexists"—those who view women as controlling and invaders of male space" who "didn't show brain activity that indicates they saw the women in bikinis as humans with thoughts and intentions."

In other words, sexists are sexist! Wow...

That said, it's always good to see scientists taking an interest in things that will get headlines, and thus funding, for things like brain imaging and scanning, which are important technologies.

[Nautipus]

Originally Posted by Count Comfect

Well, at least that's 2 fewer arms to terrorize us with.

They could still probably build a staircase out of the sea.

I wonder if it's a beneficial or a harmful mutation; although it probably doesn't matter, since as you point out it's almost certainly incredibly recessive.

It most probably is a mutation, seeing as it hasnt been documented before. But that certainly doesnt mean it hasnt happened before. Out of the population of octopuses (yes, this is now the accepted plural of octopus) held in captivity, this represents an insignificant percentage. I would be interested to see if they could look at what might be the genetic cause for this condition. A simple karyotype of this octopus might yield some surprising results when compared to that of a phenotypically normal octopus. The 2n number for most octopus species seems to be 56, so 28 pairs. It would be somewhat difficult to get the correct karyotype arrangement, but this condition (if related to a chromosomal aberration of some kind) could offer a unique opportunity to look a little more closely at the influence that some chromosomes may have on the formation of the muscular hydrostat. The fact that this mutation did not result in stunted or malformed arms, but their complete absence seems to point at the fact that arm formation in octopods is most certainly not as complicated as in vertebrates (duh), but that it is also rather simply carried out. I wonder, though, if this mutation affected the octopus' nueral network at all. Octopuses have augmentary "brains" that control each of their arms, so the absence of two might suggest a defect in other peripheral brains, but I find it unlikely.

Still awesome though.

Verily.

[Count Comfect]

I do wonder if it's really missing the arms, or if they're just completely vestigial. There'd be a big difference...

[Nautipus]

Originally Posted by sisterandcousinandaunt

Interesting. We'll probably know more about the success of it as a trait if he gets lucky.

Lucky? He's in an aquarium. Lucky is escape.

AND, speaking of getting lucky...
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...n-objects.html

Discuss.

Like Count Comfect said, not all that surprising. I think, though, that the study should be expanded to show more age groups, a larger pool of subjects, as well as subjects from different cultural backgrounds, as well as a diversity of educated males compared to non-educated males, and some from different "upbringings". It might yield some interesting insights into how the above affect a male's sexualism.


However, I dont beleive that women would reveal the same result. You're just better than we are.

[Nautipus]

Originally Posted by Count Comfect

I do wonder if it's really missing the arms, or if they're just completely vestigial. There'd be a big difference...

Yes, there most certainly would. It would more definately point to a mutation and not a recessive trait, in my eyes. The photo (however vague) doenst seem to show any vestigial limbs, but through observation and close scrutinization I beleive it may be found out for sure. It makes one wonder exactly which set of arms was deleted? Depending on the arms we may have found an impotent octopus, lacking the equipment to mate. However, he would still, likely, imitate the maneuver, and die afterwards. Although, if he didnt, he may still die. Octopuses die even if their reproductive organs are removed, females lay sterile eggs, gaurd them and die protecting them, and males simply expire.

[Insidious Rex]

Originally Posted by sisterandcousinandaunt

Interesting. We'll probably know more about the success of it as a trait if he gets lucky.

AND, speaking of getting lucky...
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...n-objects.html

Discuss.

Geez. I could have told you this for free. Why dont people give ME money to conduct studies about how men are pigs when they see women in bikinis...

I guess it begs the complimentary study about WHY women consistently seek to present themselves in this way if its so horrible that men find their bodies sexually attractive independent of their minds...

It seems to me this is all normal biological animal activity. This is how we are supposed to work.

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Originally Posted by Nautipus

Lucky? He's in an aquarium. Lucky is escape.

Spoken like a single guy.

Like Count Comfect said, not all that surprising. I think, though, that the study should be expanded to show more age groups, a larger pool of subjects, as well as subjects from different cultural backgrounds, as well as a diversity of educated males compared to non-educated males, and some from different "upbringings". It might yield some interesting insights into how the above affect a male's sexualism.


However, I dont beleive that women would reveal the same result. You're just better than we are.

Oh, I agree. I think the researcher should do nothing for the rest of her professional career but show guys pin-ups.

Originally Posted by Nautipus

Yes, there most certainly would. It would more definately point to a mutation and not a recessive trait, in my eyes. The photo (however vague) doenst seem to show any vestigial limbs, but through observation and close scrutinization I beleive it may be found out for sure. It makes one wonder exactly which set of arms was deleted? Depending on the arms we may have found an impotent octopus, lacking the equipment to mate. However, he would still, likely, imitate the maneuver, and die afterwards. Although, if he didnt, he may still die. Octopuses die even if their reproductive organs are removed, females lay sterile eggs, gaurd them and die protecting them, and males simply expire.

Chickens do that too.

[Nautipus]

Originally Posted by sisterandcousinandaunt

Spoken like a single guy.

If I die when I mate....

Oh, I agree. I think the researcher should do nothing for the rest of her professional career but show guys pin-ups.

Yesum, I do beleive so. It would be an interesting study, that wouldnt take an extremely long time. I'd be interested to see the results.

Chickens do that too.

Their just BORN, then die.

[inked]

Having long pondered why the prefix hex- is substituted for the proper sex- (which is derived from the Latin for six (6) - as in quadruplets(4), quintuplets(5), sextuplets(6), septatuplets(7), and octuplets(8) (see recent news and editorials on the ethics of octuplets), which I know well from my official line of work), I begin to see the light from this thread!

After all, the illustrated Octopus should be a Sexapus, not a Hexapus, if one is consistent with the Latin nomenclature.

However, SACA's reference shows that biology trumps once again in the matters of mental functioning, regardless of the nomenclature! What this correlation fails to discover or disclose, but is certainly worth discussing, relatively speaking, is why male brains, lighting up in the tool region when viewing bikini-clad females, would have not used the proper prefix for the - now inaccurately named - hex bolts and hex nuts. The SACA correlation clearly shows that tool use and sex are related by blinky lights on brain scans. So there should be -if the hardwiring is so entrenched, as it were - properly termed sex bolts and sex nuts. Unless this was tried and rendered work a figment of the hexual imagination!

This all seems like Greek to me.

Discuss.

Addendum: Do you think that the (?) biological methane on mars is the result of martian methanogens of the male sex drinking beer and viewing scantily-clad female methanogens at bachelor parties and devolving into lighting digestive tract emissions? Also discuss.

[Nautipus]

Originally Posted by inked

Biological methane on Mars?

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/acce...ETHANE_ON_MARS

Mighty neat, but mighty short.

[Nautipus]

Originally Posted by inked

After all, the illustrated Octopus should be a Sexapus, not a Hexapus, if one is consistent with the Latin nomenclature.

BUT, seeing as the word octopus is not Latin at all, but Latinized-Greek (or English, for short ) Then the word would likely remain hexapus rather than sextapus.

However, SACA's reference shows that biology trumps once again in the matters of mental functioning, regardless of the nomenclature! What this correlation fails to discover or disclose, but is certainly worth discussing, relatively speaking, is why male brains lighting up in the tool region when viewing bikini-clad females, would have not used the proper prefix for the - now inaccurately named - hex bolts and hex nuts. The SACA correlation clearly shows that tool use and sex are related by blinky lights on brain scans. So there should be -if the hardwiring is so entrenched, as it were - properly termed sex bolts and sex nuts.

This all seems like Greek to me.

Discuss.

That...was pretty great, really.

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Sex bolts and sex nuts?

Sounds like a facebook group for an engineering school.

If you insist it's Greek, inked, maybe a fraternity.

Seriously, about chickens. They'll take care of eggs which are not fertile. It's kinda sad...they try so hard.

[Nautipus]

Originally Posted by sisterandcousinandaunt

Seriously, about chickens. They'll take care of eggs which are not fertile. It's kinda sad...they try so hard.

Many animals do that, especially with dead or stillborn young. It's a heartbreaking phenomenon.

[inked]

Does that make chickens egg bolts and egg nuts since they seem to be hardwired into behaviour patterns and don't have reason to let them act otherwise? (Reference, your choice, hex bolts and hex nuts versus sex bolts and sex nuts versus ... dead polts and dead nuttins.................).

[Coffeehouse]

Originally Posted by Nautipus

The general public probably doesnt even know where contact lenses come from, or how pharmaceutical corporations prevent contamination of sterile equipment. All this is from the oceans. And yes, your point came across crystal clear.

Really, contact lenses? I didn't know that. The ocean has endowed me with proper eyesight then

Originally Posted by Nautipus

Neat

I'd be interested to see if this wasnt a mutation but maybe a recessive trait. A very rare recessive trait maybe.

Please discuss.

According to a developmental biologist in ScienceBlog, http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/03/hexapus.php, it's actually a quite, quote; "ordinary sort of error".

It does seem like a disabilitating mutation, but yeah, who knows, maybe it's a recessive gene of some earlier six-tenticled octopus. The develop. biologist, professor P.Z. Myers, didn't rule it out, saying, quote; "Now, if they breed this octopus and find a heritable propensity for limb development failure, then I'll be much more interested, since that means we'd be able to look at the mechanisms."

[Nautipus]

Originally Posted by Coffeehouse

Really, contact lenses? I didn't know that. The ocean has endowed me with proper eyesight then

Horseshoe crabs, believe it or not.

According to a developmental biologist in ScienceBlog, http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/03/hexapus.php, it's actually a quite, quote; "ordinary sort of error".

It does seem like a disabilitating mutation, but yeah, who knows, maybe it's a recessive gene of some earlier six-tenticled octopus. The develop. biologist, professor P.Z. Myers, didn't rule it out, saying, quote; "Now, if they breed this octopus and find a heritable propensity for limb development failure, then I'll be much more interested, since that means we'd be able to look at the mechanisms."

Thanks for posting that. It would be neat to see if it was heritable, and was a throwback to an earlier form of cephalopod. We have few soft tissue fossils of early cephs, but lots of shells. I wonder if some of them were six-armed, but, more likely, they were endowed with many arms ( over 12), at least the nautiloid cephs were. The more Teuthid, or Vampyroteuthid, animals probably wouldnt have been, but we cannot know for sure.

[Coffeehouse]

Originally Posted by Nautipus

Thanks for posting that. It would be neat to see if it was heritable, and was a throwback to an earlier form of cephalopod. We have few soft tissue fossils of early cephs, but lots of shells. I wonder if some of them were six-armed, but, more likely, they were endowed with many arms ( over 12), at least the nautiloid cephs were. The more Teuthid, or Vampyroteuthid, animals probably wouldnt have been, but we cannot know for sure.

True, that's the downside with oceanic invertebrates like cephalopods. The soft tissue simply dissolves away in the water..

Maybe it's possible to find that sort of fossil embedded in ice, where the soft tissue has been preserved, but then again that's not very likely considering the low temperatures (and cephalopods don't usually live in arctic/antarctic waters do they?).