An octopus really shouldn't be intelligent by all rights. Their brains have 1/20th the amount of neurons as humans, and it isn't centralized in their body. Instead, they have a miniature brain in the bases of their arms.

And yet the octopus has both short and long-term memory. It can solve mazes and other simple problems. They've been observed using tools and building things. While their intellect is well-known, scientists have struggled to understand why such prodigious intelligence manifested in such an unlikely creature.

New research from Tel Aviv University (TAU) in Israel and the international Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) may have our answer. Cephalopods have been found to be able to edit their RNA at extreme speed, allowing for rapid adaptations to environmental challenges.

https://sputniknews.com/science/20170408...e-quickly/

That family is not even related to any others on this planet.
We are more closely related to grass than them.
They are basically aliens, nothing surprises me about them. geek.com

Unbelievable intelligence. If they evolved as land creatures we would probably not be here.

(04-09-2017, 11:17 AM)Strigoi Wrote:  Unbelievable intelligence. If they evolved as land creatures we would probably not be here.

That's probably correct.

I'd like to be an octopus so I can slap 8 people at once.

Maybe that could be my superpower. I could call myself Octo

It's too bad people can't pull that off.

I'm not so sure we can't. I think we can do a lot of impossible things

We are usually our own worst enemies in regard to intellectual and social development.
Octopi probably don't have egos to contend with.

imagine a giant octopus with 14 arms and able to completely SHAPESHIFT.

supposedly that is what was found in lake vostok.

it was even able to shift into a humanoid figure and the other divers thought it was one of their fellow divers.

it killed a couple of them, pulling them to pieces almost immediately.

they sealed the hole back up...

That's why they should never ever be eaten.
Just don't.

Calamari isn't really very taste anyway.
In Asia, they eat them alive.

(04-10-2017, 01:13 AM)eclipsed Wrote:  imagine a giant octopus with 14 arms and able to completely SHAPESHIFT.

supposedly that is what was found in lake vostok.

it was even able to shift into a humanoid figure and the other divers thought it was one of their fellow divers.

it killed a couple of them, pulling them to pieces almost immediately.

they sealed the hole back up...

I haven't heard about that before...

Did you know they have an octopus throwing tradition in hockey?

Ok so it's a Red Wings tradition, not an all out hockey tradition