Firefly Squid

We just learned about the Cirroteuthis.

Another type of cephalopod is the Firefly Squid also known as watasenia scintillans.
They are usually about 3 inches long, and live in the Pacific Ocean.

This type of squid is bioluminescent.
That means parts of its body light up, kind of like a firefly.

There are tiny little dots all over the squid's body with organs called photophores.
The squid uses these photophores to light up, which makes small fish swim toward them, and they eat them up!

It also uses its body lights to make its top bright and bottom dark so it can hide from other predators.

When it is looking around for another firefly squid it will light up it's whole body as a signal.


(from: wikipedia - firefly squid)



Firefly squid / Shine blue beach in Toyama Bay - SuiTube5


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Goliath Frog

Cirroteuthis Octopus

We just learned about the Grimpoteuthis - Dumbo Octopus.

Another type of cephalopod is Cirroteuthis.

This is an octopus that has webbing in between its arms holding them together.
It almost looks like an octopus wearing a dress!

It can grow to be almost five feet long, and is usually white or purple.
Just like the dumbo octopus, this octopus has fins on its head that it can flap.

They live in the deep sea in cold water, like the Arctic ocean or the south pacific near Antarctica.
Scientists have not been able to find a lot of these, because they live over 6,000 feet deep in the ocean, where there is almost no light.


(from: wikipedia - cirroteuthis)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Paedophryne Amauensis

Grimpoteuthis - Dumbo Octopus

We just learned about the Blue Ringed Octopus.

Another cephalopod is the Grimpoteuthis, also known as the "Dumbo Octopus".

This octopus has fins on the side of it's head that look almost like ears, and it flaps these fins almost like dumbo the elephant flapping its ears to fly.
They swim along the ocean floor floating along, and then they jump on their prey and swallow it whole.

(from: wikipedia - grimpoteuthis)


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Blue Ringed Octopus

We just learned about the Hawaiian Bobtail Squid.

Another type of cephalopod is the Blue Ringed Octopus.

This type of octopus is very small, only about 4 to 8 inches wide even including its arms.
Their body is yellow, with glowing blue circles on it.

This is nature's way of warning everyone to stay back because they are very poisonous, and deadly to humans!
If they bite a person, they have a type of neurotoxin poison that attacks the nerves in the body and make it so they can't move any muscles.


(from: wikipedia - blue ringed octopus)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Purple Frog

Hawaiian Bobtail Squid

We just learned about the Coconut Octopus.

Another type of cephalopod is the Hawaiian Bobtail Squid.

This squid has a special type of bacteria that lives in its body that helps it glow a little, and also helps it change colors to match other things around it.

When it wants to hide, it buries its whole body under the sand, leaving just its eyes uncovered.


(from: wikipedia - euprymna scolopes)


(from: wikipedia - euprymna scolopes)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Darwin's Frog

Coconut Octopus

We just learned about the European Squid.

Another type of cephalopod is the Coconut Octopus, also known as the veined octopus or amphioctopus marginatus.

This type of octopus lives mostly on the bottom of the water, and walks along in the sand.
It gets the name of coconut octopus, because it has been seen carrying empty coconut shells while it walks, and then when it wants to hide it climbs into the shell and closes it up.
Sometimes it will carry shells instead of coconuts and hide out in them, either hiding from predators or hiding so they can attack their prey.

Scientists also think that when it walks it looks like a coconut shell bouncing along the ocean floor.



(from: wikipedia - amphioctopus marginatus)



Coconut-carrying octopus stuns scientists - AFP news agency


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Common Midwife Toad

European Squid

We just learned about the Cuttlefish.

Another type of cephalopod is the European Squid.

Squids are a lot like the cuttlefish, as they have eight short arms used for swimming and two tentacles used for grabbing their prey.
They also have a bone inside their body, kind of like the cuttlebone, but it is called the gladius.

They have a large part of their head called a mantle, with fins on the side.
Above the mantle is a tail.
Below the mantle they have the funnel where they breathe, and their eye.
At the bottom is their arms, tentacles and mouth.


(from: wikipedia - european squid)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Strawberry Poison Dart Frog

Cuttlefish

We just learned about the Chambered Nautilus.

Another type of cephalopod is the Cuttlefish.

Cuttlefish have eight arms like an octopus, but they also have two tentacles that have sharp edges like teeth they use to hook onto their prey, or sting with venom.

They have very different eyes that are in a W shape, that lets them see in front and behind at the same time.
Cuttlefish have green and blue blood instead of red, and they have three hearts!

There is a bone in the middle of the cuttlefish's body called the cuttlebone that is made of aragonite.
This is like a hollow crystaline type of bone that they use to push air or liquid into, so they can float or sink.
Just like some other cephalopods, cuttlefish have ink they can squirt out when they are scared.
This ink was so dark that it was used for painting or in food, and the science name of Cuttle fish is "Sepiida" which is where we get the color name "sepia" from.

Cuttlefish are also sometimes called chameleons of the sea, because they can change their color to look darker, lighter or even change color to disguise themselves.


(from: wikipedia - cuttlefish)



(from: wikipedia - cuttlefish)


(from: wikipedia - cuttlefish)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Edible Frog

Chambered Nautilus

We just learned about the Common Octopus.

Another type of cephalopod is the Chambered Nautilus.

These cephalopods look sort of like snails, and they live in shells like a snail.
Inside their shells are chambers in a spiral shape where their body parts are squished into.

The top of their outside shell is dark on top and light on the bottom.
This helps them hide from predators, because looking down from above they blend in with the dark sea, and looking up from below they blend in with the sky above.

The nautilus grows from an egg, but they don't grow as a larvae like a lot of other cephalopods. They grow right from the start with a tiny shell, and the shell grows with them inside the egg until they hatch, about 1 inch long.

It is a meat eater, and it eats shellfish, but also eats garbage food floating around in the water or on the bottom of the sea.

They float up and down by changing how much water is in their shell.
If they want to go down, they suck in more water, and if they want to go up they spit some out.
You can think of it like a boat, that fills up with water and sinks, or empties the water and floats.


(from: wikipedia - chambered nautilus)


(from: wikipedia - chambered nautilus)

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Panamanian Golden Frog

Common Octopus

Let's learn about some cephalopods!.

One of the most famous ones is the Common Octopus.

Some funny things about the octopus are that while a lot of people say "octopi" for a group of them, the right word is actually "octopuses".

Also, people say that an octopus has tentacles, but they actually have arms.
The difference is that arms have suction cups all along them, and tentacles only have suction cups at the end.

There are about 300 different types of octopuses in the world!

These cephalopods can change color to hide, and they use their arms to grab their prey and use their beak to crack open any shells for animals they have to eat.


(from: wikipedia - octopus)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: European Fire Bellied Toad

Cephalopods

We've learned a whole lot about frogs, now let's learn about Cephalopods!

There are over 800 different kinds of cephalopods living in the world, and around 11,000 kinds of cephalopods that have gone extinct and are no longer around.

Some cephalopods are really famous, like the octopus or squid, but some you may not have heard of like ammonoids or nautilus.

The super science name for an animal is split up into these parts: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, and sometimes Subclass.
Sometimes there are even more parts like Suborder, Infraorder, Family, Genus or Species.
Humans are:
Kingdom: Animalia, Phylum: Chordata, Class: Mammalia, Order: Primates, Suborder: Haplorhini, Infraorder: Simiiformes, Family: Hominidae, Genus: Homo, Species: H. sapiens

Scientists use these words to come up with special names for every single animal on the planet from mice to elephants.

Cephalopods are:
Kingdom: Animalia, Phylum: Mollusca, Class: Cephalopoda

The "phylum: Mollusca" actually means that an animal like an octopus is sort of related to a snail!

There are lots of different types of cephalopods, we'll learn about some fun ones next time!


(from: wikipedia - cephalopod)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Frogs and Toads

Colossal Squid

We just learned about the fish called a Blue Tang

Another interesting animal is the Colossal Squid

It is the largest invertibrate ever discovered in the world.

An invertibrate is an animal without a skeleton, like an Octopus or squid.


It was discovered in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica.
The colossal squid was around 40 feet long, that's about 7 times taller than a normal person, and as tall as a four story house!

We don't know much about the colossal squid, because we've only ever seen a few in real life!

(from: wikipedia - colossal squid)


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Octopus

The octopus is a strange looking animal, mostly because it has no bones!
The only hard part is their beak which they use to eat with.

The octopus has three hearts, two for their gills and one for the rest of their bodies.


(from: wikipedia - octopus)

Octopuses are very good at hiding and getting away from danger.
They can squeeze into small spaces since they don't have bones, spit out ink to confuse their enemies, change colors, and if an enemy grabs one of their legs they can even let it get ripped off!

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