By Rose Liu
After watching My Octopus Teacher, a documentary about nature and octopi, I wanted to know more. I wanted to know, how are these intelligent creatures going to evolve to survive climate change and pollution? How were they going to adapt and change?
I made a list of things I wanted to know and came up with my research question (AKA thesis): How do octopi evolve to withstand climate change and pollution? I was able to come up with an answer: Octopi can evolve to withstand climate change and pollution, adapting quickly to environmental changes by shortening their lifespans, and evolving to use mimicry and pollution as tools to help evade predators.
I used the internet to help me find websites with information on octopi. All in all, it was mostly successful, although I did discover that to use the internet, I must be extremely specific to get relevant answers.
First, I found out about the different species of octopi, where they live, what they eat, how they avoid predators etc.
Next, I discovered that even though climate change and pollution is desaturating the oxygen levels in the water, the octopi have only sped up their life cycle and taking advantage of the fact that their competitors and predators are starting to be rooted out.
I have also discovered that the level of an octopus’ intelligence is staggeringly high. Everywhere I look there are stories of octopi taking apart tanks, or plugging their outflow pipe, or sneaking off to plunder fish from a neighboring tank. Because they have 8 arms, that they have also developed uniquely complex motor skills.
Throughout this search, I found out that climate change was the least concern to octopi. They can easily adapt to their new surroundings and use pollution to their advantage. I also discovered the degree of their intelligence, as well as how humanlike they seem to be.
WHICH CONCLUSION DO YOU LIKE BETTER?
Conclusion 1 (extension):
I think this research will certainly open new questions, and new investigations about pollution and nonhuman intelligence, as well as new robotic inventions. Many believe that the octopus is an alien, who knows… someday we might discover our octopi counterparts in some other planet.
Conclusion 2 (summary):
Throughout this search, I found out that climate change was the least concern to octopi, they can easily adapt to their new surroundings, and use pollution to their advantage. I also discovered the degree of their intelligence, as well as how humanlike they seem to be.
URLs from my research:
4/21
Blue Ringed Octopus:
Size:4-6 cm
Weight: 10-100 gram
Diet: Shrimp, fish, hermit crabs.
Predators: Humans, eels, birds, and whales
Poison: The Blue Ringed Octopus is the only poisonous octopus. It is poisonous due to a chemical they can inject called tetrodotoxin. Tetrodotoxin is one of the most poisonous chemicals animals produce.
Distinguishing markings: Even when they are camouflaged, you can faintly see the blueish rings which signify its poison. When it flashes its rings at you, it means it will bite.
Habitat: Tropics
4/23
Giant Pacific Octopus:
Size: 30ft arm span.
Weight: 300lb.
Diet: Shrimp, lobster, birds and small sharks.
Predators: Sharks and humans.
Habitat: Pacific Ocean
4/27
“With higher temperatures due to climate change, octopuses are changing the way they behave and develop in ways that often times hinder their survival. Birth rates, population size, and energy distribution are all affected drastically with slight changes in temperatures.”
Source: https://adapt136.ucsc.edu/taxa/invertebrates/the-common-octopus-may-stop-being-common-due-to-climate-change#:~:text=With%20higher%20temperatures%20due%20to,with%20slight%20changes%20in%20temperatures.
4/29
“Researchers saw a significant drop in retinal activity in four species of marine larvae (two crabs, an octopus and a squid) when the animals were exposed to reduced-oxygen environments for as little as 30 minutes.” Warming deoxygenation could make octopi lose their vision.
Source: https://www.livescience.com/65495-low-oxygen-blinds-octopuses.html
4/30
“They are not believed to be under threat, but they are sensitive to pollutants. Scientists are still discovering new species of octopuses.”
Source: https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Invertebrates/Octopuses
5/5
“A clever octopus made headlines earlier this year after it swiftly disassembled part of its tank at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium in California. But out in the open ocean its relative, the veined octopus (Amphioctopus marginatus), has upped the cephalopod intelligence quotient by using coconut shells as tools.”
Source: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/a-tool-wielding-octopus-this-invertebrate-builds-armor-from-coconut-halves/
5/7
“What was keeping scientists from accepting the existence of consciousness outside of our own family tree? Simple brain anatomy. Older models of brain activity lodged complex, conscious experiences—like musing about a piece of music or reminiscing about a piece of cake—in our highly evolved cortex. But, as the authors of the new declaration noted, many nerve networks involved in “attentiveness, sleep and decision making appear to have arisen in evolution as early as invertebrate radiation, being evident in insects and cephalopod mollusks (e.g. octopus).””
Source: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/octopus-chronicles/octopuses-gain-consciousness-according-to-scientists-declaration/
5/11
“To cope with the exceptional computational complexity that is involved in the control of its hyper-redundant arms, the octopus has adopted unique motor control strategies in which the central brain activates rather autonomous motor programs in the elaborated peripheral nervous system of the arms.”
Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982215002663
5/14
“When scared, octopuses will shoot a dark liquid, sometimes called ink, at the thing that scared them. This will temporarily blind and confuse a potential attacker, giving the octopus time to swim away. The ink can also dull the attacker’s smelling and tasting abilities, according to the Smithsonian article.
Octopuses can also change color to hide and match their surroundings. They can turn blue, gray, pink, brown or green. The mimic octopus can also flex its body to resemble more dangerous animals, such as eels and lionfish, according to the World Animal Foundation.”
Source: https://www.livescience.com/55478-octopus-facts.html
5/17
“Here are some of the more notable species the mimic octopus imitates:
Lionfish: By spreading out its arms and propelling itself through the water column, the mimic octopus resembles the brown and white striped lionfish. Since lionfish are known for their very sharp and highly venomous spines, this deters other animals from attempting to prey on the octopus.
Sole (flatfish): The mimic octopus can hurriedly glide over the ocean floor by pulling its arms flush against its’ body and flattening out to resemble a sole. This particular flatfish is poisonous, so imitating the fish’s leaf-life shape helps keep predators at bay.
Sea snake: If threatened, the mimic octopus will pull six of its arms into its burrow, leaving two arms resting on the sandy bottom. The undulating, black and white banded arms look remarkably like an extremely venomous sea snake, encouraging would-be predators to scatter.”
“Scientists suggest that the mimic octopus may choose which animal to impersonate based on which predator is hovering nearby. For example, when bullied by territorial damselfish, an octopus was seen “transforming” into a sea snake, a well-known predator of damselfish.”
Source: https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2016/04/01/why-the-mimic-octopus-is-the-ultimate-master-of-disguise/
5/18
“Cephalopods are often called ‘weeds of the sea’,” she said, because their “rapid growth, short lifespans and flexible development” let them adapt to environmental changes more quickly than other marine animals.”
“Overfishing and warming oceans may benefit octopuses, squid and cuttlefish. Cephalopods are voracious predators, for which overfishing depletes competition and removes predators. Warmer waters are believed to accelerate cephalopod life cycles, so long as food remains available, and the temperatures do not rise too far.” Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/23/octopuses-squid-cuttlefish-warming-oceans-climate-change
