Cephalopod Eyes

We just learned about the Cephalopod - Suckers.

Another different part of a cephalopid is the Cephalopod Eyes.

Different cephalopods have different shaped eyes.
Like some octopus have dumbbell shaped eyes, some squids have oval shaped eyes, cuttlefish have W shaped eyes, and nautilus have pinhole shaped eyes.

The one thing cephalopods have the same is that they can all see very well in the dark, but they can't see different colors very well.
Their eyes are built a lot like human eyes, but where our eyes block a lot of light, theirs let in as much as possible so that they can see in the very dark depths of the ocean.





(from: wikipedia - cephalopod eye)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Yellow Spotted Climbing Toad

Cephalopod - Suckers

We just learned about the Cephalopod Tentacle Hooks.

Another part of cephalopods is the Suckers.

Octopuses, squids and cuttlefish have suckers along the inside of their arms, and squids and cuttlefish have suckers at the end of their tentacles.

The outside of the suckers are usually shaped like a circular bowl.
The cephalopods have muscles below their suckers, that they use to make the suckers grab their prey.








(from: wikipedia - cephalopod limb)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Square Marked Toad

Cephalopod - Tentacle Hooks

We just learned about the Cephalopod Arms and Tentacles.

At the end of many squid limbs are Tentacle Hooks.

Different squids have hooks of different shapes, but they use them to grab their prey, hold on to them and pull them to their mouth.



(from: wikipedia - cephalopod limb)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Japanese Tree Frog

Cephalopod - Arms and Tentacles

We just learned about the Cuttlebone.

Another two parts of Cephalopod's body are the Arms and Tentacles.

It used to be that all of the legs of squids and octopuses were called tentacles, but a while back things changed and now they are seen as two different things: arms and tentacles.

The octopus only has 8 arms, because they are shorter and have suckers all along them.
Squids have 6 arms and 2 tentacles, and the tentacles are the ones with no suckers all along, but teeth or hooks on the end.




(from: wikipedia - cephalopod limb)


If Your Hands Could Smell, You’d Be an Octopus - Deep Look

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: African Dwarf Frog

Cuttlebone

We just learned about the Chromatophore.

Another part of some cephalopods is the Cuttlebone.

Just like you might think from the name, this is part of the cuttlefish.

It is a bone inside the cuttlefish that has a pocket for air.
The cuttlefish uses this to control when it floats or sinks.
It uses it's muscles to suck water out of the cuttlebone, which draws more air into it from its body, and it will float up.
Or it will push more water into the cuttlebone and it will sink.



(from: wikipedia - cuttlebone)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Stony Creek Frog

Chromatophore

We just learned about the Cephalopod Ink.

Another part of many cephalopods is the Chromatophore.

Cephalopods have little sacks in their skin called cytoelastic sacculus, that are filled with something called pigment granules.

That's a lot of big words, but it basically means they have tiny bags of color all over their skin, and they use muscles to squish out more color or less color to change the way they look.


(from: wikipedia - Chromatophore)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Rhacophorus

Cephalopod Ink

We just learned about the Cephalopod Funnel.

Another part of a cephalopod is the Ink Sac.

This is inside the mantle where the gills are, and when an octopus or squid gets scared it will let out some black ink to hide, and to try and scare off anyone coming to attack it.

The ink just comes out of the ink sac, and they use the funnel that they squirt water out of to shoot the ink all over the place.

The ink is so dark that sometimes people use it to color types of food very dark.


(from: wikipedia - arròs negre)


octopus shooting ink! - Bilal El Hasnaoui


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Wallace's Flying Frog

Cephalopod - Funnel

We just learned about the Octopus Gills.

Another part of a cephalopod's body is the Funnel, also sometimes called a siphon.

When a cephalopod like a squid or octopus breathes in, they suck water into their mantle and then push it through their gills.

When they breathe out, they shoot the water out of a tube called a funnel.
They can even use that water shooting out like a little water jet and push their body along under water.


(from: wikipedia - octopus)


Octopus jet siphon system - clarkq


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Mission Golden Eyed Tree Frog

Octopus Gills

We just learned about the Mantle of an Octopus or squid.

When the octopus or squid wants to breathe, they breathe through Gills just like fish.

The gills are inside the mantle, so they will take water into their mantle, and use some muscles to close their mantle.
This makes the water push through their gills where they can get the oxygen they need.


(from: wikipedia - octopus)


Amazing breathing of an Octopus - isarounddaworld


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Bornean Eared Frog

Mantle

We just learned about the Octopus Beaks.

Another part of the Octopus is the Mantle.

This is the part of their body above their eyes and arms, that usually has fins on it.
The mantle usually has the heart and stomach and other organs inside of it.


(from: wikipedia - mantle (mollusc))


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: White's Tree Frog

Octopus Beaks

We just learned about the Japanese Flying Squid.

We've learned about a lot of fun cephalopods, like the octopus, squid, nautilus and cuttlefish!.
Let's learn a little bit about how their bodies work!

An Octopus Body is made up of interesting parts like the mantle, fins, siphons, tentacles, gills, beaks, fins suckers and even things like humans have, like eyes, hearts, arms and skin.

One of the most interesting parts is the Octopus Beak, also called the rostrum, as it is one of the only hard parts of the body for many octopuses.

The beak is made up of two parts, with an upper and lower part that fit together like scissors, and are controlled by jaw muscles just like humans.

It is mostly made up of some proteins mixed in with something called chitin (pronounced like kah-ee-tin), which is actually a kind of sugar.

This chitin is hardened so the beak is super sharp and is used by an octopus to break open the shells of animals they want to eat like clams.



(from: wikipedia - cephalopod beak)

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Lemur Tree Frog

Japanese Flying Squid

We just learned about the Opalescent Inshore Squid.

Another Japanese Flying Squid.

These squids live in the Pacific around Japan and Vietnam, and can grow to around 2 feet long.

They swim along by sucking water in on one side of their siphon, and then spitting it out the other side like a jet.

Sometimes they will swim so fast that they will shoot themselves up out of the water, and have been seen flying for almost 100 feet over the water!


(from: wikipedia - japanese flying squid)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Hourglass Tree Frog

Opalescent Inshore Squid

We just learned about the Big Blue Octopus.

Another type of cephalopod is the Opalescent Inshore Squid, also called Doryteuthis opalescens.

This is a very small squid, only growing to about 7 inches.

They live in the Pacific ocean by the eastern short of North America, all the way from Alaska to Mexico.

These squids are tiny but there are lots and lots of them.
The mother squids lay their eggs on the ocean floor, and there are so many that they cover acres and acres in the sand.
Because there are so many eggs there, a lot of ocean predators like starfish will go eat the eggs.

When the squids grow up, they are still very tiny but when they get together in groups there can be millions of them all in one place!
With so many of them swimming around, they are a big snack for other animals like sharks and seals.



(from: wikipedia - doryteuthis opalescens)


Opalescent Squid Egg Laying - nofishful


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Puerto Rican Crested Toad

Big Blue Octopus

We just learned about the Pharaoh Cuttlefish.

Another type of cephalopod is the Big Blue Octopus also called the octopus cyanea or day octopus.

This octopus lives in the pacific, all the way from Hawaii to Africa.
It grows to about 3 feet long, and lives in coral reefs.

Like a lot of other cephalopods, this octopus can changes its color and whether it has bumpy or smooth skin.
It can even make stripes or dots on its body, or even make itself look bumpy like a rock.
One scientist studying a big blue octopus watched it change the way it looked 1,000 times in 7 hours!
Sometimes the octopus will even make moving and changing colors on its body, like a cloud is passing over head.



(from: wikipedia - octopus cyanea)


cyanea octopus camouflaging - noam josef


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Wyoming Toad

Pharaoh Cuttlefish

We just learned about the Humboldt Squid.

Another type of cephalopod is the Pharaoh Cuttlefish.

Sometimes the boys of these cephalopods will fight each other over a girl they like, but they won't touch each other, they just flash different patterns of colors.

It's almost like boys having a dance battle to win the girl cephalopod's heart!



(from: wikipedia - pharaoh cuttlefish)


Pharaoh Cuttlefish - Henry Hall

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Vietnamese Mossy Frog

Humboldt Squid

We just learned about the Southern Sand Octopus.

Another type of cephalopod is the Humboldt Squid, also known as the jumbo squid, jumbo flying squid, pota, or diablo rojo (red devil).

These squid can gro from 5 feet to 8 feet long, they live in the Pacific Ocean, and usually live around 1,000 feet under the water.
Just like some other cephalopods, they can change colors from white to red, which is where they get the nickname "red devil".
Sometimes these squids will talk to other nearby squids by flashing different colors!

This squid is a hunter, and when it is hunting other small fish it uses all of its 8 arms and 2 tentacles to reach out and grab the smaller fish or other animals it is hunting, then pull them into its mouth where it has a sharp beak used to cut up and eat the animals.
They are super fast hunters and can swim up to 15 miles per hour!

Some people have been attacked by this type of squid, but scientists think that only happens when the squid are feeding on other prey and are hunting.
When these squid get angry they have even attacked and broken deep sea cameras sent down to look at nature.




(from: wikipedia - humboldt squid)


Swimming With a Humboldt Squid | Deadly 60 | BBC Earth - BBC Earth

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Banded Bullfrog

Southern Sand Octopus

We just learned about the Joubin's Squid.

Another cephalopod is the Southern Sand Octopus, also called octopus kaurna.

This octopus lives around Australia, and grows up to about 20 inches long, with very thin arms.

This octopus can not change colors like a lot of others can, so it stays hidden by burying itself in the sand.
It goes down by the bottom of the sea, and spits out a big jet of water down into the sand, then use its arms to quickly dive down into the hole it made.


(from: wikipedia - octopus kaurna)


Octopus makes its own quicksand then vanishes inside - New Scientist

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Coqui

Joubin's Squid

We just learned about the Stumpy Spined Cuttlefish.

Another type of cephalopod is the Joubin's squid, also called Joubiniteuthis portieri.

This squid lives in very deep parts of the ocean, and has some very long arms that it just leaves hanging out floating in the water to catch small animals that accidentally swim into it.

It is a very small squid and is only a little over 3 inches long.


(from: wikipedia - joubiniteuthis portieri)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Golden Mantella

Stumpy spined cuttlefish

We just learned about the Ammonoidea.

Another type of cephalopod is the Stumpy spined cuttlefish, also called the dwarf cuttlefish, or sepia bandensis.

This is a cuttlefish that is very small. It's about 3 inches long, and doesn't even weigh one pound!
They are light brown or yellow, with white spots on their heads, white stripes on their body, and blue spots on their fins.

These cuttlefish live in shallow waters near the country of Indonesia, usually by coral reefs.
One interesting thing about these cuttlefish is that they don't swim!
They use their arms and flaps on their body to walk along the floor of the sea.


(from: wikipedia - sepia bandensis)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Fox Snake

Ammonoidea

We just learned about the Flapjack Octopus.

Another type of cephalopod is the Ammonoidea, also called ammonite.

These cephalopods look a lot like a nautilus in their spiraled shell, but because of the way their body parts are inside of the shell, they are actually a lot like a squid, octopus or cuttlefish.

The spiral shaped ammonoidea get their name from a scientist a long time ago that thought the shells looked like ram's horns.
In Egyptian mythology, Ammon was shown in artwork wearing ram's horns, so the scientist Pliny the Elder named these cephalopods "ammonis cornua" which means "horns of Ammon".

Ammonites can come in many different shapes, like having sharp points on the outside of it's shell, or even shaped more like a corkscrew.

The ammonites are not around anymore, they all went extinct many years ago.






(from: wikipedia - ammonoidea)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Bumblebee Toad