mimic octopus, creativity and anticipation

This is a link to a PDF that explains the reason I was interested in this creature: http://alexhays.com/mimicOctopus.pdf

It's a fascinating study of the Q: "What Is art/creativity?"

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Daniel-Day-Lewis has been called the greatest living actor by some. He has won an array of awards for his acting time and time again. Day-Lewis grew up in a town named Greenwich in Southern London, an incredibly rough area. He was Jewish and labeled posh by the other kids, who then bullied him because of it. Day-Lewis reacted creatively to an environmental situation by mastering the accent and the mannerisms of the locals. In his autobiography he says this was the first convincing performance he ever gave.
---

Journal:
http://journals.royalsociety.org/content/pp95mdq58uyhe4ru/?p=63a072818265476b...

"In all putative examples of mimicry it is worth considering that the observed similarities may, in fact, be the product of convergent evolution. The mimic octopus may take on the appearance of a sea-snake simply because the same selective forces that make black-and-white bands a useful signal for the sea-snake also apply to the octopus. However, it seems very unlikely that such a remarkable resemblance of animals with radically different morphologies and behaviours is not due to mimicry. It is striking that the most obvious impersonations by the mimic octopus are all of animals that produce strong toxins. Banded sea-snakes produce venom that is injected through fangs, the long bannered spines of lion-fishes are tipped with toxins, and soles (including Zebrias species) possess poison glands at the bases of the dorsal and anal fins."

"The `dynamic mimicry (Norman et al. 1999) of the mimic octopus may escape this genetic constraint because it is not employed continuously: all individuals can carry alleles for all forms of mimicry simultaneously. This has been described as a `neural polymorphism, whereby cephalopods gain the benefits of polymorphism, such as increased apparent rarity, without genetic polymorphism (Hanlon & Messenger 1996). "

"Although the potential for individuals to mimic more than one model may allow them to escape the genetic constraints associated with shifts in model, it does not fully explain how new forms of mimicry evolve. The evolution of new forms in the mimic octopus will depend on there being situations where a novel form of mimicry,even in an undeveloped form, is superior to the existing patterns that might be employed. For genetic polymorphisms the usual explanation is that rare morphs have higher fitness since there are fewer mimics relative to hosts. This may be the case in the mimic octopus, but there is a potential additional benefit of being able to mimic more than one model: dynamic mimicry has the unique advantage that it can be employed facultatively, with the octopus adopting a form best suited to the perceived threat at any given time. Evidence for such sophisticated behaviour comes from our observation that on all occasions when sea-snake mimicry was observed it was exclusively a reaction to an attack by territorial damselfishes. Sea-snakes forage by entering burrows, and are predators of damselfishes (M. Norman, personal observation). The observation that the octopus uses a particular form of mimicry when it is most appropriate suggests that it is indeed able use its powers of deception facultatively."

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• mimic
• octopus
• anticipation
• creativity

[alphafirstoneyou]

wtf is this shitty music

[alexb00ts]

@alphafirstoneyou sigur ros =) i love it

[halaambe]

nice. whats the song?

[jimmybilbo]

It's weird. I think it is Sigur Rós - svefn-g-englar - but it doesn't sound right. Search for this phrase on youtube to find video of angels dancing. The song will match, but the one in the video is not correct. It's like someone forced the vocals over a MIDI file to avoid copyright issues.

[alexb00ts]

@jimmybilbo I actually think I got the song from their live CD (it's been a while)

[alexb00ts]

@halaambe its sigur ros but I dont remember which CD, prolly off either takk, Ágætis byrjun, or ()

[cgkoen]

@alexb00ts It''s Untitled #1 (Vaka) from ( ).

[PennilessandTired]

@halaambe untitled 1 from the () album, search untitled 1 sigur ros, this is a remix

[chaosbutterfly93]

The song is called (Untitled) by Sigur Rós

[Metsengneizer]

Am I the only person who found this really scary?

[brana1646]

@alexb00ts don't listen to him, its great calming music

you have good taste!

[itsalloverthewalls]

You guys are so silly. The song is called Vaka. It's track one of ( ).

[75hilmar]

@alexb00ts shazam says it's vaka on the album hvarf/heim

[75hilmar]

The beauty of sigur ros music is reaching out for the beauty of these animals.

[halaambe]

@alexb00ts

thanks :D