Thaumoctopus mimicus
The next animal that I have found to post about comes from the ocean. It is an invertebrate with the taxonomic binomial nomenclature Thaumoctopus mimicus. The more common name for this creature is the mimic octopus. Since it is an invertebrate it has no bone structure and lives in the water that is slightly more dense so that its body has more stability. The mimic octopus lives off the coast of Indonesia and Malaysia about 15m deep. It prefers muddy sea floors so that it can blend in with its light brown and beige coloring. The octopus grows to be about 60cm long with 62cm long arms. It prefers an open environment because of its ability to mimic other creatures in order to sneak up on prey or avoid predators. This ability is where they get their name, but is also why I found them fascinating enough to write about. The mimic octopus is intelligent enough that it will make itself look like other animals that are poisonous to avoid predators. Not only will it mimic body shape, but it will also move like other creatures and change coloring and pattern. It is able to do this from memory, so that it can mimic another animal without that animal actually being around to watch. It is also intelligent enough to figure out which predator is around so that it can change to match another creature that the predator will avoid. The mimic octopus also utilizes a similar technique to find prey with one of the most startling uses for me of its ability is that it will mimic a crab in order to mate with another crab to sneak up and then eats the crab. The mimic octopus eats small fish, crabs, and worms. The body plan of the mimic octopus is gelatinous so that it can move its body in almost any way that it wants to, but also has siphon that allows him to jettison across the ocean bottom to look for food. After mating the female will protect the eggs and put them on the roof of her cave, while the male will die a few months after. The female will not eat while guarding the eggs and will die soon after they hatch. The mimicry of the octopus is kind of hard to describe in words so I am going to input a video so that you can see it.
References
- (2010, November 04). Most intelligent mimic octopus in the world. Retrieved September 12, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-LTWFnGmeg
- (2013, October 10). Mimic octopus (thaumoctopus mimicus). Retrieved September 12, 2016, from http://eol.org/pages/3100227/overview