#19636: — 03/24  at  04:25 PM
GET THE FxCK OUT OF HERE! That is just wrong.

#19638: Sharon — 03/24  at  05:34 PM
I saw it on the TV this evening and immediately thought of you...

#19641: Rana — 03/24  at  06:16 PM
I LOVE the name of their paper. And how the octopus seems to combine tiptoeing with the "Keep On Truckin'" walk.

#19652: afarensis — 03/24  at  07:56 PM
You have my sympathies. I stumbled across the arabidopsis article yesterday and was goin to use it for a post Friday (to get on the Friday Ark - But Carl Zimmer and De Rerum Natura beat me to it!
Also, a belated thanks for including me in your blog roll.

#19654: — 03/24  at  08:28 PM
I just watched them. Totally cool! The second one (octopus aculeatus) reminded me of an ent attacking Isengard.

#19657: — 03/24  at  08:33 PM
Does "bizarre" mean "previously unobserved"?

I left this comment at Thoughts from Kansas:

The headline writer said "tiptoe," but the story itself says "striding," and the clips don't show tiptoe. Rather, each octopus articulates (bends) its forward arm approximately in the middle, lays it down on the sea floor, and rolls forward over the forearm. Like our gait--heel strike followed by rolling forward over the foot.

Also of interest: "Bipedal locomotion was thought to require muscle pulling against hard skeleton. But the octopuses walk using opposing muscle movements. . . ." Five years of Pilates have taught me that the bones are spacers and levers, and we move them by coordinating opposing muscle groups.

#19690: — 03/25  at  01:59 AM
Wow! Hard to believe it's taken this long for me to find this blog, and the walking octopi feature was a great intro. That incredible T. Rex find led me here...

Oh, boy, there goes another ten or fifteen minutes of every day-- and just look at that enticing blogroll, with all of those unfamiliar names!

Now to get to work on that avatar...

#19694: — 03/25  at  02:47 AM
The octopi are makin fun of us. "Ooh! Look at me, I'm a human, walking around on my legs! Haha, butterface human dweebs." Spiteful octopi!

#19838: Matt McIrvin — 03/25  at  09:12 PM
They think they know what's best! They're making a fool of us! They're setting a bad example! They ought to be more careful!

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