Octopus Intelligence Shakes Up Darwin’s Tree
There does not seem to be a Tree of Intelligence, which deepens the mystery of intelligenceThe octopus is a short-lived, exothermic, invertebrate loner – how can it be intelligent? Yet it is.
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Jumping Genes … A New Clue to Octopus Intelligence?
Despite being very different, the human brain and the octopus brain share the same sort of jumping genesThe fact that octopuses are unusually intelligent (like mammals) — even though they are solitary invertebrates — means that they now receive some protection against cruelty. Protection that no one bothers about for, say, clams and oysters. But the science puzzle remains. How did octopuses and some of their close kin among the cephalopods get so smart? Theories about how mammals and birds got to be smart may not work here. A recent paper adds a little more information to the controversy. Studying the common octopus and the California octopus, researchers found that the same “jumping genes” are active in the octopus brain as in the human one — even though the two types of brain are very different. Jumping Read More ›