octopus
I saw this picture of an octopus from the recent discovery of almost 100 unknown species of deep sea creatures near Antarctica. The octopus, arranged symmetrically for added emphasis, instantly felt out of place not attached to a face. Concentrate on the head and eyes. Have you noticed how similar octopuses and aliens appear?
I’ve always known that octopuses are intelligent, but until looking at this specific picture, the anecdotal pieces never connected so clearly:
- octopuses can change colors so convincingly, it doesn’t even make sense with slow motion playback,
- they can kill sharks,
- in labs they’ve been rumored to leave their tank at night, walk across the room, eat crabs/fish from another tank, and walk back to their own tank before they are discovered,
- “When under attack, some octopuses can detach their own limbs, in a similar manner to the way skinks and other lizards detach their tails.”
- they shoot ink,
- they have no internal skeleton and can fit through a 1-inch hole
- they are extremely smart and have sunction cups on their tentacles,
- they have tentacles,
Not all of these characteristics or abilities are commonly associated with aliens, but they are all very strange when you think about them carefully, and even stranger in aggregate in one animal. There is a lot we don’t know about aliens and a lot to learn about the other forms of life in the oceans here on Earth.
