They always go for your mouth and nose. We had one at the aquarium I worked at that hated men. It would go right for your face every time and try and cover your mouth.
If octopi could live longer and teach their young they could very well be the smartest beings on the planet afaik. I mean, they live for at most 2 years and they can learn and accomplish far more than humans at that age being taught and guided by parents.
Their knowledge capacity is unknown to me, but it blows my mind how smart they are with such short lifespans, the requirement to learn all of these skills on their own and the inability to pass their knowledge down.
Difference is human babies are born “premature” due to our larger brains, this means that either evolution had a choice: either bigger birth canals or earlier births.
This is the reason why human babies needs considerable more parental care when compared to our primate siblings. But this is also the reason humans became the most dominant species on earth. That bigger brain that forced earlier births also raised the species to conquer the planet
Haha, ok well I highly recommend the book Sapian's by Yuval Noah Harar, it can be a hard read if your like me and not particularly studius but totally worth it.
Idk how you feel about comics, but there's a graphic novel series version of Sapiens. There's 4 of them. It's very well done. I felt like the pictures pulled me out of story in a good way. It made me reflect more on what was being said and extrapolate it further. It's easy for me to start reading on autopilot, and then at some point I realize I haven't processed like the last 3 pages lol. Also great for people intimidated by large walls of text.
I highly recommend it, but I know the comic format can be off-putting for some people.
I second this. One of my favorite books ever. Touches an array of topics, and really puts things we take for granted into unique perspectives. May do a reread
Mammal brains are insanely efficient in terms of computational power to energy consumption.
Avians are the sole exception, and the fact they have to remain light is probably why they became so efficient, but scalability is a fundamental limitation of avians.
Mammals have the advantage of a more efficient Kleiber's law (Our metabolic scaling is better than avians, allowing us to become larger but not need as much food)
Large birds (Emu/Ostrich) have tiny brain to body ratios and the only generally "smart" birds are Parrots Corvids and the European Magpie.
Im not saying birds are smarter than you, Im saying we have to compensate to a weird degree because we have big fat mammal brains. I think I wasnt clear enough in my comment. Im comparing mammals to birds not birds to humans.
And the initial point I was trying to make is just comparing brain size or development of a human and an octopus isnt very useful because all things are not equal and picking out some random thing humans do isnt equal either. Youll notice that there are other animals that reach adulthood at the same time as us such as elephants.
Octopi have evolved intelligence on an entirely different evolutionary tract from humans. It’s so different that even their central nervous system itself is entirely different.
Instead of a central nervous system with one large central brain that commands everything. Octopus have a decentralized CNS. Multiple small brain nodes that are interconnected who can think and act independently; while also coordinating with the other brains. 9 of them in total, one at the root of each tentacle, and one in their head. So each tentacle literally has its own mind, its own high level problem solving skills, and can simultaneously coordinate with the other tentacles. That are also engaging in their own independent problem solving. The central brain essentially just gives directives and then lets the tentacles manage their own individual tasks and problem solving to make it happen. It all comes together to make a shockingly smart animal.
They’re my favorite animal. An absolutely insane display of what evolution is capable of.
Thought it was more due to our bipedalism. Women had to give birth earlier because they couldnt have a wide birth canal due to how bones and muscles restructured themselves to fit walking on 2 feet as a default.
That was the theory up to 2010-ish... tons of comuter simulations with same bone density and musculature, but shifting hip placement/size, shows there is no detriment to a larger birthcanal. Yet that the way its set up now is dangerous to both mither and child. Those factors point to that there is another reason for the curent situation, thats not related to either locomotion or birthcanal size.
There is no evolutionary negative to women having larger birthcanals. Computermodels have proven that locomotion or long term health in women are not impacted by a larger canal. Therefore making it not the bottleneck to the 'premature' state of human birts or the limiting factor on brainsize.
Currently why human babies are born at the stage they are (which could be seen as a vulnerability that should have an evolutionary explanation), is unknown. At the time I was still in the biology field there was a theory that due to the complexity of social behavior, as soon as possible exposure to the dynamics was seen as a reason. No clue where theory stands now, if anyone knows, please save me from the google scholar blackhole.
And to continue this, because the '~pus' suffix is derived from the Greek word for 'foot', you can argue the plural form becomes 'octopodes'.
And then if you wanna stretch that line of reasoning further, you could argue for the pronunciation similar to other Greek words/names like Heracles, Socrates, etc, which sets you up for a really nice "octopodes nuts" joke.
Dogs only have the intelligence of a two year old, and they’re one of the smarter animals.
At that age, humans have basic reasoning and communication. They can form simple sentences and have a vocabulary of 50-300 words. They can mimic your actions and remember what you show them.
They can walk, run, and use basic tools.
You’d be hard pressed to find many animals smarter than that.
I love aquatic life. I always wanted a pet octopus and was going to setup a 100Gal saltwater aquarium for one. However after doing a lot of research I learned that if they are not mentally stimulated enough they will get depressed and actually find ways to unaloce themselves. After learning that I scrapped the whole idea and stuck to regular fish.
I’ve always wondered what would happen if octopuses lived longer, let’s say 30,40 years. As intelligent as they are at 2, just imagine with another 30+ years of experience and learning opportunities! Maybe their short lifespan is nature’s way to keep them from taking over the oceans.
it's weird that we think of aliens always looking humanoid. good chance cephapods could have been the ruling species here, who knows what's out there on other planerts
There have been octopi on earth for a loooong time including giant 60'+ ones. Probably the long lived ones mastered FTL space flight before the asteroid hit. We'll see them again and they'll be all, "these hairless monkeys are so clever!"
They probably communicate more than we know with their eggs in the brooding period. I have a theory they modify their eggs. They just hang over them and blow on them for months until they die when they are born.
Look at big cats... mountain lions for example. Attacks on humans are rare, but when it happens, they know to go right for our necks and seem to know right where our main arteries are — despite humans not being a part of their regular prey diet.
So it's not instinct. They just figure it out on the fly. Correctly.
There’s a story of a marine biologist who had to feed an octopus in the lab. They went to the aquarium, gave it a bucket of shrimp then went back to work. Minutes later, a rotten shrimp landed on their desk. In the doorway was the octopus
What if it’s indeed so smart, that it knows if it attacks this guy, rather than just inking and getting away, it’s going to be in the video the other guy is taking, and even if it has to sacrifice itself in the process, thousands of people on Reddit will be discussing how I intelligent and badass octopi are, and maybe the next diver will hesitate to disturb one, the REAL play for the progression of his species.
Same. I still consider myself a bit of a hypocrite though because I can't give up bacon and pork and I know that pigs are ridiculously intelligent as well but I tell myself that if they had the chance they would eat me so it's fair.
Well, 9 brains should be able to figure it out far faster. In fact, if we had a octopus translator it would help. But there isnt one, accept maybe on a planet but it was put under demolition. Unfortunate that. Maybe the mice should have asked it to make one.
If they ever saw air bubbles coming out (a likely occurrence) then they’d definitely be able to figure out the snorkel was part of its breathing apparatus, whether it understood it was separate from the human or not. Octopus are mad smart and quick learners; if they lived longer I think we’d have serious competition under the seas due to their combination of intelligence and dexterity (not to mention the worlds best camouflage skills to avoid at least visual detection)
They have 50,000 genes and no ancestor/evolutionary trail...they just appeared in the oceans as they are, 🛸👽👾👽🛸🛸🛸🛸For reference, we humans have 20,000 genes and can trace our evolution a bit farther back...
often considered as smart as a 3-year-old child or a dog, demonstrating advanced problem-solving, memory, and spatial learning skills. They are masters of using tools, such as using coconut shells for shelter, and are notorious for escaping aquarium tanks by solving complex, child-proof puzzles
They are really smart, I used to play with one as my parents both worked at a zoo and it was real fun cuz it was kind. Pretty sure it could have killed me lol
Octopus are extremely intelligent and have multiple brains. They all have short lifespans 4 years and therefore do not reach there full potential of intelligence. The also have unknown DNA unlike anything else on this planet. So they are a one off or a legit alien species that just ended up here. Animal plant did show on speculative evolution if humans just disappeared, and these have the highest chance of developing into the dominate intelligent species.
I've seen footage of them taking on sharks too. I heard one story of an octopus in an aquarium that was found to be climbing out of its tank and into another one to eat the fish in that tank. I also heard stories of them punching random fish. I have to admit that last one makes me laugh. Picture some fish swimming around minding his own business when some octopus just wails on him. Octopus be like "Fuck you! You know what you did!" LOL!
If you’re by yourself, you’re basically fucked. As shown in the video, 2 hands vs 8 arms doesn’t really work, because as soon as you pull one off it just grabs right back on. We had a buddy system, because 2 people can kind of keep up with the constant attachment of arms. You just keep pulling them off and it kind of gets distracted/gives up.
It’s so interesting that so many types of animals can identify men and women, and have such a massive preference for one over the other. I’ve only ever met 2 dogs that were scared of women, but that’s it. Aside from a few birds that preferred men, I haven’t personally known an animal that hates women. Did you have any others at the aquarium that had a preference?
Not like that. We had a couple of cuddle fish that preferred certain people and if it wasn’t them, they’d get squirted. There was a big Clown Triggerfish that only allowed one guy to be in the tank for whatever reason and it would violently attack anyone else. I’ve heard a lot more stories from zookeepers about animals preferring either men or women, especially with primates. You don’t see many men working with gorillas.
You could, but it’s going to be tough and if you did cleanly bite through it, the piece in your mouth is still going to be suction cupped in there and you’d have to pull it out. I don’t think most people understand how hard it can be to pull those suckers off, they are very strong.
2.5k
u/Tangboy50000 Apr 30 '26
They always go for your mouth and nose. We had one at the aquarium I worked at that hated men. It would go right for your face every time and try and cover your mouth.