Striped Pyjama squid

Bill is trying to get Stuart to learn programming. 

Art

Goal for the week 15.5hrs

Today

Work on the sphinx

Animal

Photo by Richard Ling

The Striped Pyjama squid (Sepioloidea linolata) is a golfball sized cuttlefish from southern Asia and northern Australia. It is one of only two known poisonous cuttlefish. They have little finger-like projections around their eyes to help keep sand out of them.

A better picture of one

Giant squid

I think this is the 100th post. Having shifted my schedule it is a little harder to post in the morning so I may be posting at night more frequently.

Art
Goal for the week 14hrs
today
work on the sphinx

Animal
Mythology

It gets a little hard to do the mythology of specific invertebrate species past a certain point since most people generalize them into types that cover quite a few species. The giant squid of the Architeuthis genus (of which they estimate there are between 3 and 8 species) have generated quite a bit of mythology since they are essentially sea monsters. In Norway and Iceland they can probably be linked to the Kraken. The Kraken was often described as a giant squid or crab-like monster that resembled an island and attracted fish. It was said that fishing was good directly over a Kraken, though it was also said that they would occasionally attack and pull down ships. The giant squid may also be the source of the sea monk a really weird looking thing from Denmark. Another creature, a bearded whale reported by Olaus Magus a Swedish writer might have also been a giant squid, though it does seems to have a happy little dog/seal face and claws added. Giant squid are also said to be minions of Cthulhu at many of the conventions I attend.

Southern Blue-ringed octopus

Art

goal for the week 20hrs

today

still sanding

Animal

Photo by Saspotato

The Southern Blue-ringed octopus (Hapalochlaena maculosa) is a golf ball sized octopus from the south coast of Australia that is considered to be one of the world most venomous animals. Most of the time it is a tiny brown octopus, but displays it's bright blue rings when threatened.  The toxin it can deliver with it's painless bite is a powerful enough neurotoxin that it can kill an adult in minutes.  There is no known antidote, but individuals may be saved it artificial respiration is started before the cyanosis and hypotension develop. If the poisoned individual survives more then 24 hours then they will generally survive. The octopus's poison come from a symbiotic relationship with bacteria that live in it's saliva, it is also immune to the bacteria's chemical as it has evolved different sodium channel receptors then most animals. Fortunately they are relatively docile creatures and do not generally bother humans unless significantly harassed or stepped on.

Hawaiian bobtailed squid

Art

Goal for the week 15.25 hours

Today

buy more sandpaper

sand boxes

Animal 

Photo by Nick Hobgood

The Hawaiian bobtailed squid (Euprymna scolopes) is a tiny squid that only grows to a little over 1 inch in length and lives in tropical coastal Pacific areas. This squid sometimes lives in incredibly shallow water only 2-4 cm deep. The Hawaiian bobtailed squid is a short lived squid completing its life cycle in only 3 to 10 months. Given its unpredictable behavior it is also thought that it is quite intelligent. This squid has a symbiotic relationship with a light producing bacteria Vibrio fischeri. The squid has a light organ in it's mantle that it purposely infects with Vibrio fischeri. It feeds the bacteria with this organ and the bacteria produce a controlled amount of light from the bottom of the squid. This light helps it to avoid creating a silhouette that would tip off predatory fish to it's presence. Interestingly the bacteria in this light organ can give off 1000 times more light then that bacteria cultured independently. This symbiotic relationship seems to be in the process of being studied reasonably heavily at this time from what I can tell based on all of the online papers. This Vibrio bacteria is a harmless light producing species, however other Vibrio bacteria are responsible for shellfish poisoning and Cholera, so the study of the mechanisms of this symbiotic relationship may also be useful for human health studies. In the process of these studies they have also worked out how to breed this squid in captivity which is quite a challenge as squid require very difficult to produce water conditions.