The deep sea is full of wonders, they are all kinds of strange things, each showing its magical powers. Octopus, like the familiar cuttlefish, is not a fish, but a mollusk. The octopus is unique in that it is 8 feet long and twists and turns like a belt, floating in the water. Fishermen also call octopus "octopus".
Speaking of octopus, it is the "one bully" in the ocean. Octopus is extremely powerful, cruel, aggressive and resourceful, and many marine animals are afraid of it. Octopus is a sensitive animal, and its nervous system is the most complicated and advanced among the invertebrate propellers, including central nerve and peripheral nerve. There are auditory nerve, olfactory nerve and visual nerve in the brain ganglion. Its most developed sensory organ is the eye, which is not only big, but also bulging and motionless, like an owl. The structure of the eyes is very complicated. There is a cornea in front, a sclera around it, and a developed lens that can compete with vertebrates. In addition, there is a small pit in the skin behind the eyes. This unusual nest is used for smelling.
The reason why octopus can run amok in the sea is inseparable from its special "magic weapon" of self-defense and attack.
First of all, octopus has eight sensitive touching wrists, each touching wrist has about 300 suckers, and the pulling force of each sucker is100g. Think about it, no matter who is entangled in its wrist, it is difficult to get away. Interestingly, the octopus's wrist, like the human hand, is highly sensitive to external detection. Whenever the octopus is resting, there are always one or two touch wrists on duty, and the touch wrists on duty are constantly moving, and they are highly alert to the "enemy situation"; If something really touches its wrist lightly, it will immediately jump up and spray thick black ink to hide itself, and take this opportunity to observe the surrounding situation and prepare to attack or retreat. Octopus can spray ink six times in a row, and after half an hour, it can accumulate a lot of ink. Octopus ink is harmless to people.
Secondly, octopus has amazing color-changing ability. It can change the color of the skin at any time, making it in harmony with the surrounding environment. It has been seen that even if the octopus is injured, it still has the ability to change color. American scientist Bowen dissected an octopus in a newspaper. Surprisingly, black and white lines appeared on the dying octopus. Bowen was shocked at that time. Someone asked: How can octopus have this magical color-changing ability? It turns out that there are many pigment cells hidden under its skin, which are filled with different colors of liquids. Each pigment cell has several dilators, which can expand or contract the pigment cells. Octopus's skin will change color when it is frightened, excited and excited. The command system that controls the change of octopus body color is its eyes and brain marrow. If there is something wrong with one side of the eye and brain, one side will be fixed to the same color, while the other side can still change color. Then there is the powerful regeneration ability of octopus. Whenever an octopus meets an enemy, sometimes its wrist will be firmly grasped by the other party. At this time, it will automatically throw away its wrist, take a step back, and let the peristalsis of the broken wrist confuse the enemy and take the opportunity to slip away. Whenever I go to wrist fracture, the blood vessels in the wound will contract as much as possible, so that the wound will heal quickly, so that the wound will not bleed, and it will grow well the next day, and a new wrist will soon grow.
Finally, the octopus's escape skills are excellent. Because octopus can store water in the membrane cavity and live on oxygen dissolved in water, it can live for several days without seawater. Someone witnessed such an interesting thing: a scholar put an octopus in a basket and took it on the tram. Ten minutes later, he suddenly screamed from behind the tram. It turned out that this octopus actually emerged from the eye of a half-inch basket and climbed onto a gentleman's leg, making him scream hysterically. This is because the octopus can turn his rubbery soft body into a cake.
Octopus likes to live in the empty shell of animals. Whenever it finds an oyster, it waits patiently. The moment the oyster opened, the octopus quickly threw the stone in, so that the two shells of the oyster could not be closed. Then the octopus eats the meat of the oyster and gets into the shell to settle down. This is enough to show that octopus is not stupid. In fact, octopus's intelligence is far more than that. It will also skillfully move stones by touching the wrist. For octopus, stone is not only their building material, but also a "shield" against foreign enemies. Once there is nowhere to hide, octopus will build their own houses. They will pile stones, shells and crab shells into a nest like a volcanic vent and live in seclusion. Octopus often turns to stones when attacking. Sometimes it takes a big stone as a shield and puts it in front of itself. At the first sign of trouble, it pushes the stone shield to the side of the enemy's attack, and at the same time uses a funnel to spray ink at the enemy. When it wants to retreat, it will use this stone shield to break its back.
Octopus is also an excellent "architect". Strangely, it always builds houses in the middle of the night. I can't hear anything before midnight. After midnight, they seem to have received orders. Eight tentacles have been collecting all kinds of stones. Sometimes octopus can take away big stones that are 5 times, 65 times, 438+00 times or even 20 times heavier than itself. Where octopus likes to live, there is often an "Octopus City", which is made of stones.
Octopus is aggressive, but also a little cowardly and afraid of bullying. When it meets an opponent who is stronger than itself, it will use the tactic of "losing the pawn to protect the car". If it meets an opponent who is not as good as itself, it will definitely beat the other side. Someone witnessed such an interesting scene: the fight between octopus and lobster Lobsters belong to arthropods and like to hide in cracks in rocks, in rocks or in tunnels with exits at both ends. One day, a big octopus was swimming vigorously, and a big lobster swam across the road in a hurry. While swimming, the lobster thought, "With my big pliers, when I meet a small fish, I always get caught." At this time, it has come to the octopus. When the two males met, they glared at each other for a while. The impatient lobster, with its hard shell and sharp claws, pounced on the octopus first. The octopus knew that the battle would be 100% successful, so he took his time to avoid it, and then the lobster killed the octopus for the second time and the third time, and the octopus cleverly hid it. At this time, the lobster was a little panicked and exhausted. The smart octopus began to use the first trick-changing color. Octopus turns red, green, shiny and dark, and immediately even lobsters are dazzled. At this time, the lobster got angry and slapped his chest with his tail. After all this, the lobster is really exhausted. Octopus used the second tactic-releasing tentacles and tightly surrounding lobsters with its tentacles with hundreds of suckers. The angry lobster refused to miss such a good opportunity, and immediately opened the hacksaw-shaped claw pliers to firmly clamp the octopus's tentacles. At this time, the lobster thought, "It's strange that it's so easy to catch fish at ordinary times. Why can't it be caught continuously this time?" Despite constant clamping, lobsters will never relax. At this close moment, the octopus finally took out the third trick-spraying "smoke bombs". Suddenly, it was dark all around, which made the lobster disoriented and paralyzed. A wonderful fight ended in the victory of the octopus. The octopus dragged the lobster to a quiet place and tasted the delicious lobster alone.
Although the octopus is cruel to the "enemy", it treats its children with all kinds of care and consideration, even if it is exhausted.
Every breeding season, the female octopus will lay a string of crystal-clear and full eggs like grapes. Since then, she has been guarding her beloved baby, and often turns and caresses her shiny eggs with her tentacles, spraying ice cubes from the funnel and cleaning them one by one. Until the little octopus hatched from the eggshell, the "loving mother" was not at ease, fearing that her beloved child would be bullied by other marine animals, and still refused to leave, eventually becoming very thin, falling down, and some died of overwork.
Octopus is cruel and scheming. It is very dangerous for people who go to sea to encounter it, but people still have ways to deal with it. As long as the nerve between the octopus's eyes is quickly cut off, it can be out of danger. The octopus is tender and delicious. Fishermen often drill a hole in the shell according to the habit that octopus likes to drill into the shell, and string it together and sink to the bottom of the sea. After the octopus goes in and settles down, it can be pulled up again, so that it doesn't take much effort to catch some octopus.
-Excerpted from Sea World 1997, 2 by Cao Yuru.
Octopus, said to be a fish but not a fish, evolved from cephalopods. Octopus is usually very small, and its eight tentacles are thin and long, so it is also called "octopus".
Octopus's offensive and defensive skills are amazing, and it is a veritable generalist. Once the octopus is caught on the shore, it will never get the wrong direction of the sea. Scientists still don't understand why it has this ability. Octopus's body is extremely soft and elastic, and it can pass through very narrow gaps. Like lizards and scorpions, it can turn a blind eye. Once its tentacles are bitten by other animals, it will run away with its hands broken. Without bleeding, the surrounding skin will close itself, and the wound will heal itself the next day, and new tentacles will soon grow. Octopus, like chameleon, will change its color with the environment and be frightened. Anger can also change body color, which may be the "language" for octopus to convey information. Octopus has the ability to cover up escape with ink-jet juice. Ink contains narcotic substances, which can paralyze the covered animals.
Octopus is ugly and skilled, but never cruel. They are extremely gentle, friendly and timid animals. Of the 200 known octopus species, most are very small, and only in the North Pacific do large species live. Their tentacles are about 5 ~ 10 m and their weight can reach 45 kg. As for whether there is a bigger giant chapter in the deep sea, it remains to be confirmed. It must be terrible to meet giant seals in imagination, but people rarely see octopus when diving underwater. They don't like the flat bottom of the sea and always hide in caves in rocks.
If you really meet an octopus underwater, don't be too alarmed. They always retreat voluntarily. Sid, a famous French expert, once made a special observation on octopus. He dived into the water, found the octopus's cave and approached it. The octopus became very nervous, immediately swelled up, stared at the visitor closely, put its tentacles out of the hole, and used everything around it to heighten its bunker. It seems that he wants to seal his hiding cave tightly, and his body color will change because of fright. Once it finds that the visitor refuses to leave, it will flee from its hiding place on its own. First, it will flatten its body, cling to the bottom of the sea, slowly climb out of the bunker, always stare at you warily, and suddenly flee quickly.
Divers often meet octopus underwater. According to their experience, octopus only grabs objects around it when it is frightened. If someone is around at this time, it will catch people, but its purpose of catching things is only as support. Don't panic if you are caught. Just gently catch the octopus and bring it to the surface, and it will never resist again. When you reach the surface, just pat it or touch (but don't scratch) its body, and it will release its tentacles and leave you.
Many divers have proved that octopus never attacks people actively. When it is forced, it would rather use other escape methods than take offensive action. If it changes color, it means calling the police or spitting out "smoke". In short, it is trying to leave you, just trying to hide in the bunker as soon as possible.
Facts show that octopus is a timid and docile animal, but in view of its powerful tentacles and hard-to-get-rid sucker, it is better to stay away from it when encountering large octopus underwater, so as to avoid it.
Have a misunderstanding and haunt you.
Octopus is also a very friendly and intelligent animal. The octopus in the aquarium can quickly get acquainted with the keeper. They are like puppies. Like a kitten, she likes being noticed by her master and playing with her master. Naughty octopus will also take the initiative to spray water on the audience for fun. Some breeders have had this experience: when feeding, they deliberately hold the bait in their palms, and the octopus opens its fingers with its tentacles to take away the delicious food; If it is a beautiful bait for snails and shellfish, it will be inspected at the bottom of the water after being taken away, as if afraid that you will cheat it with shells.
The female octopus is perhaps the most dedicated and self-sacrificing mother in the world. It only lays eggs once in its life, laying hundreds to thousands of eggs (the larger the number, the smaller the more) and hiding in its own cave. During the incubation period (different species need different time, usually 4-6 weeks), female octopus never leaves the cave without eating or sleeping, not only to drive away predators, but also to keep swinging tentacles to keep the water in the cave updated from time to time, so that the unborn babies can survive. On the day when the little octopus hatched, the female octopus finished her life's duties and died of exhaustion. How many animals in the world can have such great motherhood!
Octopus has a developed nervous system and is friendly to people, so fishermen in some parts of Europe have long known to train octopus to catch shellfish, crabs and even fish on the seabed. Octopus is curious, willing to learn and has a good memory. It is amazing that an octopus with a strange shape should have such a good "brain". No wonder some science fiction novels, such as the author of Star Wars, describe Martians as octopus-shaped monsters. Among marine animals, dolphins have won the special favor of human beings for their graceful posture and understanding. Perhaps the "cleverness" of the ugly octopus is more valuable.
Man wants to develop it!