Why is the octopus so smart?

Rob Beschizza 5:36 am Mon Dec 3, 2018

Cephalopod intelligence is widely known, but scientists struggle to understand why it evolved. The New York Times' Carl Zimmer reports on one of zoology's most fascinating questions.

About 275 million years ago, the ancestor of today's cephalopods lost the external shell. It's not clear why, but it must have been liberating. Now the animals could start exploring places that had been off-limits to their shelled ancestors. Octopuses could slip into rocky crevices, for example, to hunt for prey. On the other hand, losing their shells left cephalopods quite vulnerable to hungry predators. This threat may have driven cephalopods to become masters of disguise and escape. They did so by evolving big brains, the ability to solve new problems, and perhaps look into the future — knowing that coconut or clam shells may come in handy, for example.

Yet intelligence is not the perfect solution for cephalopods, Mr. Amodio suggested. Sooner or later, they get eaten. Natural selection has turned them into a paradox: a short-lived, intelligent animal.

They also like MDMA.

Meet Elizabeth Ann, the first clone of an endangered American species

Black-footed ferrets were in danger of going completely extinct in the 1980s. Scientists collected the few ferrets they could find in Wyoming for a breeding program, which has been successful, but the species is still endangered and the gene pool is rather thin. In fact, all the black-footed ferrets in the US are descended from… READ THE REST
AI counts elephants from space

Researchers have posted a paper about using satellite images to count elephants on the ground: Using very‐high‐resolution satellite imagery and deep learning to detect and count African elephants in heterogeneous landscapes. In this study, we apply a Convolution Neural Network (CNN) model to automatically detect and count African elephants in a woodland savanna ecosystem in… READ THE REST
Dog learns new howl

Watch this adorable goldie learn the song of the Siren pack. READ THE REST
Save $63 on these award-winning translation earbuds while donating to charity

We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. Summer may be coming to an end, but that doesn't mean your adventures have to stop. Whether it's a business trip or weekend galavanting around town, broadening your world can be… READ THE REST
Level up your communication with a three-year subscription to Markup Hero

We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. Nothing's worse than trying to find that random image someone sent you, however many months back, frantically searching through email threads for something that looks familiar. Not only is that stressful, but it's… READ THE REST
Study for a perfect score and help kids in need by purchasing this portable monitor

We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. Studying has become incredibly unconventional, starting with doing everything online and continuing with giving textbooks the axe. So if you're ditching the stacks for a more modern way to focus on your… READ THE REST