Octopus
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Any of several marine molluscs/mollusks, of the family Octopodidae, having no internal or external protective shell or bone (unlike the nautilus, squid or cuttlefish) and eight arms each covered with suckers. Many portrayals of octopuses in movies depict them as evil, such as The Little Mermaid and others.
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Intelligence
Octopuses are highly intelligent, probably more intelligent than any other order of invertebrates. The exact extent of their intelligence and learning capability is much debated among biologists, but maze and problem-solving experiments have shown that they do have both short- and long-term memory.
Autophagy
A common belief is that when stressed, an octopus may begin to eat its own arms. However, limited research conducted in this area has revealed that the cause of this abnormal behavior, called autophagy, may be a virus that attacks the octopus's nervous system. Thus this behavior may be more correctly labeled as a neurological disorder. In film
Filmography
- Amours de la pieuvre (1965)... aka Love Life of the Octopus by Jean Painlevé
- La Pieuvre (1928)... aka Devilfish (USA) by Jean Painlevé
See also
