Octopuses Using Coconut Shells As Shelters



Biologist Mark Norman found octopuses (octopi?) off the coast of Indonesia that use split open coconut shells as hiding places. This is the first known tool use by an invertebrate animal:

An octopus would dig up the two halves of a coconut shell, then use them as protective shielding when stopping in exposed areas or when resting in sediment.

This, on its own, astonished the team. Then they noticed that the octopuses, after using the coconut shells, would arrange them neatly below the centers of their bodies and "walk" around with the shells—awkwardly.


It's uncertain whether these were African or European coconuts. Video at the link.

Link | Photo: Roger Steene

Comments (28)

Newest 5
Newest 5 Comments

How is this different from hermit crabs and coconut crabs? Is the difference that an octopus is squishy and cuter than this http://blog.rifftrax.com/wp-content/photos/coconut_crab.jpg ? (Please note: coconut crabs have outgrown their coconut-wearing stage by the time they are that big)
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It seems to me that not only are the octopodes smart enough to use tools, but they are smart enough to develop the classic Freudian malady, Shell Envy. As a mollusc, at one point in their life history they had a shell, but it has receded into nothingness. Ashamed of their lack, they must make due with artificial substitutes.
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I remember seeing a show on octopus on PBS that showed these wee little ones doing this in erm.. some area that I forgot. It was this big open area w/ nowhere to hide so they used whatever they could find. Some dragged along bottles and hid in them.
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Yay! I love octopuses :D Wish we had the money for a salt water aquarium and find some place that sold the little bitty ones. Too bad they don't live for very long though :(
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Excellent! I love stuff like this. I'm surprised you didn't include a little bit about the Moebius strip or Klein bottle, though.

In the Mandelbulb paragraph, there's a "#D" where I think you meant "3D", but that's a minor quibble. Great article!
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"...an equilateral triangle has three sides all the same length. An isosceles triangle doesn’t (the hypotenuse is longer)..."

Sorry, that's not correct, unless the isosceles triangle also just happens to be a RIGHT triangle (the hypotenuse is the side opposite of the right angle). An isosceles triangle is simply a triangle with two sides of the same length (an equilateral triangle is also an isosceles triangle, incidentally).
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Cool article.

Btw, "isosceles" just means that at least two sides of the triangle are the same length--the third could be longer, or shorter, or even the same size.

So, you could have a very wide angle between the two same-length sides (as in your spidron) or

the angle could be very narrow (think of the top part of a capital A)

or they could all be the same length--every equilateral is also isosceles.

(But *not* every isosceles triangle is equilateral--just as every square is a rectangle ie, has 4 right angles, but not every rectangle is a square.)
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The Mandelbulbs seem to be the latest trend lately in the Fractal World, just as the flame fractals and Apophysis were a couple of years ago until they were overused by these people at Deviant and their random renders (now every flame fractal looks the same - boring! With a few exceptions of course). As a Fractint fan... I still didn't find that much fun in these Mandelbulbs yet. I had more fun with the simulations of Vision of Chaos (the buckets, the ants looking for food leaving trails of pheromones and the fish vs. sharks are amazing), and its "Genetics" sections as well.
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Dear Editor, I don't know why did not you mention my name, when you mention spidrons, I was working on it for 30 years and trade marked two years ago. You can see much more on spidrons and the newest development: sphidrons
best regards, Daniel Erdély
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