Hebrew University research on octopuses sheds light on memory

Jerusalem, June 17, 2008 Research on octopuses has shed new light on how our brains store and recall memory, says Dr. Benny Hochner of the Department of Neurobiology at the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Why octopuses? Octopuses and other r...

Brain Regulation Present Even In Spineless Creatures

...cies of brain signaling that allow people, such as athletes, to repeat and adjust tasks they perform repeatedly. Cephalopods, which also include octopuses and squids, have 100 million nerve cells compared to the 10,000 in insects and the some one trillion in humans. "The idea is to look at simpler brains...

Octopuses in Biological News

Tentacles of venom: New study reveals all octopuses are venomous

Once thought to be only the realm of the blue-ringed octopus, researchers have now shown that all octopuses and cuttlefish, and some squid are venomous. The work indicates that they all share a common, ancient venomous ancestor and highlights new avenues for drug discovery. Conducted by scienti...

Cretaceous octopus with ink and suckers -- the world's least likely fossils?

...l species was known, and from fewer specimens than octopuses have legs. Everyone knows what an octopus is. E... and dogs. Unlike our vertebrate cousins, however, octopuses don't have a well-developed skeleton, and while th...tists interested in evolutionary history. When did octopuses acquire their characteristic body-plan, for exampl...

Polar research reveals new evidence of global environmental change

...ear to be migrating poleward in response to global warming. Other IPY studies reveal interesting evolutionary trends such as many present-day deep-sea octopuses having originated from common ancestor species that still survive in the Southern Ocean. IPY has also given atmospheric research new insight. Rese...

Queen's University Belfast researchers trace octopuses' family tree

...ogramme to learn more about the world's oceans. octopuses started migrating to new ocean basins more than 30...t conditions, many different species evolved. Some octopuses lost their defensive ink sacs because there was no...t expect would be partially protected from it. "If octopuses radiated in this way, it's likely that other fauna...

How the octopus forms an elbow

...egies in articulated limbs (for example, jointed vertebrate arms) and flexible octopus arms suggests that these qualities have evolved convergently in octopuses and in vertebrates, and it also suggests that an articulated limb--controlled at the level of joints--is the optimal solution to the challenge of achi...

Cuttlefish masters of disguise despite colorblindness

...her optical clues, in particular, cuttlefish perception of object edges, brightness, and sizes of objects. Cuttlefish are cephalopods, relatives of octopuses and squid, and are found in all marine habitats worldwide; they are particularly abundant around coral reefs and temperate rock reefs in which the vis...

At the molecular level, the predator is the prey

...anisms on Earth that can eat T. granulosa newts and survive are some T. sirtalis garter snakes. TTX is a defensive compound found in some puffer fish, octopuses and primitive chordates. It is used in low concentrations to treat morphine and heroine addicts. It's also the "zombie" drug used by Haitian voodoo ri...

Octopuses in Biological Definition

Brain

...oups of animals, with some exceptions, have notably complex brains: the arthropods (for example, insects and crustaceans ), the cephalopods ( octopuses , squid , and similar mollusks ), and craniates ( vertebrates and their cousins). The brains of arthropods and cephalopods arise from twin paral...

Carnivore

... gulls , penguins , pelicans and storks Frogs Snakes Crocodilians Sharks and many other species of fish Toothed whales octopuses and squid Spiders Mantophasmatodea , Reduviidae and other insects There are also several species of carnivorous plants , though mos...

Eye

...e , incorporating a doublet structure that gave a good field of view despite the rigid lens . In most vertebrates and some mollusks (such as octopuses ) the eye works by projecting images onto a light-sensitive retina , where the light is detected and transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve ...