^TagOctopus (intelligence)

An octopus holding a plastic bottle , generative ai

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 7, 2023

Categorized
Animal mind, Evolution, Neuroscience

Tagged
A J Fillo, Dominic Sivitilli, Ed Yong, Joshua Rosenthal, Octopus (intelligence), Octopus as alien species, Octopus brains, Octopus genetics, Octopus neurology, Tamar Gutnick, Troy Farah}

Will the Octopus Ever Find Its Way Into a Tidy Evolutionary Tree?

_{New finds in genetics and neuroscience both shed light and deepen the puzzle of the almost "alien" species} _{Denyse O'Leary

November 7, 2023

6

Animal mind, Evolution, Neuroscience}

Just why the octopus — a short-lived, solitary, invertebrate exotherm — should seem as intelligent as a monkey has become quite the puzzle in recent years. Typical evolutionary explanations don’t really work. The octopus’s biological inheritance is precisely the type that we don’t associate with intelligence. For one thing, it is much more closely related to clams than to monkeys. What about the fact that the octopus has nine brains? Well, do nine invertebrate brains add up to more intelligence than one? That’s a question worth asking because it probably wouldn’t work with grasshoppers or worms. That is, both types of life form have brains but it isn’t clear how an installation of nine of them in a single individual Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 29, 2023

Categorized
Animal mind, Evolution

Tagged
Dominic Sivitilli, Kenna Hughes-Castleberry, Mihai Andrei, Octopus (intelligence), Octopus brain}

Octopus Intelligence Is Unlike Anything We Know

_{Could such a different neurology really evolve purely by natural selection acting on random mutations?} _{Denyse O'Leary

September 29, 2023

4

Animal mind, Evolution}

The octopus, considered to be separated from us by about 700 million years of evolution, is believed to be the most intelligent invertebrate. It challenges many common assumptions about animal intelligence because it is also a short-lived loner. And we are discovering that its nervous system apparatus for intelligence is also completely different from typical mammal or bird models. Rather than having a centralized nervous system, the octopus’ nervous system is spread throughout its body. Two-thirds of its neurons are not inside its brain. Researchers aren’t even sure how this system can work, but it does … But it gets even more interesting. Many of these neurons can communicate with each other without going through the brain. Essentially, the nervous Read More ›

Gallipoli, Canakkale, Turkey; close up of an octopus eye (Octopus vulgaris Cuvier, 1797). Generative AI

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 16, 2023

Categorized
Evolution, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Animal Intelligence, Animal intelligence and evolution, Ed Yong, Grygoriy Zolotarov, Jonathan Birch, Octoculture, octopus, Octopus (and pain), Octopus (intelligence), Octopus brain, Octopus intelligence and jumping genes, Robyn Crook}

Octopus Intelligence Shakes Up Darwin’s Tree

_{There does not seem to be a Tree of Intelligence, which deepens the mystery of intelligence} _{Denyse O'Leary

September 16, 2023

7

Evolution, Natural Intelligence}

(This article was first published in Salvo 64, Spring 2023, as Spineless Wonders.) The octopus presents a conundrum in animal intelligence: A highly intelligent invertebrate. We used to live in tidy world, where vertebrates, with backbones terminating in a brain, were more intelligent than invertebrates, with a variety of nervous system layouts and structures (or, in many cases, little or none thereof). Mammals and birds are, of course, highly favored for intelligence because they are warm-blooded (endothermic), and the brain is a high metabolic area. The traditional “tree of intelligence” makes sense, actually. But then we got to know the octopus. A “Second Genesis” Called by some a “second genesis of intelligence”, the octopus is the hero or perp of Read More ›

Common octopus in large sea water aquarium

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
January 29, 2022

Categorized
Biology, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Cambrian Explosion (and panspermia), Edward J. Steele, Meteors (as carrying life), Octopus (intelligence), Octopuses (extraterrestrial origin hypothesis), Panspermia (and octopuses)}

Science Paper: Could Octopuses Be Aliens From Outer Space?

_{It’s the octopus’s intelligence that causes such usual theses to float in the science literature} _{News

January 29, 2022

7

Biology, Natural Intelligence}

A 2018 science paper that suggests that the brainy cephalopod might have originated off the planet has been receiving new attention. The basic thesis is that the Cambrian Explosion, which produced most of the basic animal life forms we see today, was the outcome of extraterrestrial viruses carried on a meteor that crashed onto Earth 540 million years ago. The underlying theory is panspermia, a hypothesis espoused by Francis Crick, that some viruses and bacteria travel on the tails of comets or meteors and may take root on planets: These comets could have introduced Earth to novel life-forms that evolved on other planets, including viruses, durable microorganisms like unearthly tardigrades or, as the new study suggests, even fertilized animal eggs Read More ›