Mad as a Marine Biologist

High-res This is how I ended my snorkel yesterday…. A friend called me over to the shallows as I was walking in, he had found a Blue Ring Octopus (genus Hapalochlaena) - one of the most venomous animals in the world. This one was just over an inch long. When the octopus is agitated, the brown patches darken dramatically, and iridescent blue rings or clumps of rings appear and pulsate within the maculae. This photo [by Dan Geary] is of it flashing at us when we got a bit close. The venom is strong enough to kill a humans and there is no anti-venom. The octopus produces venom that contains tetrodotoxin, 5-hydroxytryptamine, hyaluronidase, tyramine, histamine, tryptamine, octopamine, taurine, acetylcholine, and dopamine. identical to tetrodotoxin, a neurotoxin which is also found in pufferfish and cone snails that is 10,000 times more toxic than cyanide. Tetrodotoxin blocks sodium channels, causing motor paralysis and respiratory arrest within minutes of exposure, leading to cardiac arrest due to a lack of oxygen. The toxin is produced by bacteria in the salivary glands of the octopus.

This is how I ended my snorkel yesterday….

A friend called me over to the shallows as I was walking in, he had found a Blue Ring Octopus (genus Hapalochlaena) - one of the most venomous animals in the world. This one was just over an inch long. When the octopus is agitated, the brown patches darken dramatically, and iridescent blue rings or clumps of rings appear and pulsate within the maculae. This photo [by Dan Geary] is of it flashing at us when we got a bit close. The venom is strong enough to kill a humans and there is no anti-venom. The octopus produces venom that contains tetrodotoxin, 5-hydroxytryptamine, hyaluronidase, tyramine, histamine, tryptamine, octopamine, taurine, acetylcholine, and dopamine. identical to tetrodotoxin, a neurotoxin which is also found in pufferfish and cone snails that is 10,000 times more toxic than cyanide. Tetrodotoxin blocks sodium channels, causing motor paralysis and respiratory arrest within minutes of exposure, leading to cardiac arrest due to a lack of oxygen. The toxin is produced by bacteria in the salivary glands of the octopus.

Notes

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    by turning into a blue-ringed octopus?
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    favorite! EVER!
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