octopus

Boingboing noted a Japanese sea oddity today: an octopus with 88 extra tentacles as a result of abnormal regeneration.

That can't be comfortable.

I receive word-of-the-day e-mails, but I've got one today that didn't arrive in my inbox: octidextrous. As in, are you right-tentacled, left-tentacled, or octidextrous?

Scientists in the UK are giving aquarium octopuses Rubik's Cubes to see if they use a preferred tentacle, which could help in reducing the creatures' stress if the scientists know which side they prefer to be fed on.

But the question remains: Can the octopus actually solve the Rubik's Cube? Now that would be a sight to see...

As we've noted in our creature corner, and as Carl Zimmer discusses in today's in-depth Slate story, the Octopus is not your average marine invertebrate. It's an Ivy League invertebrate. Well, sort of.