Mad as a Marine Biologist

High-res malformalady: Octopus releasing ink. In addition to its many other defenses, an octopus produces ink made of natural red melanin. It appears a dark brown when concentrated. A squirt of ink can help camouflage an animal, or distract a predator while the octopus escapes. The ink also contains tyrosinase, which irritates a predator’s eyes. The few octopus species that don’t produce ink tend to live in deep water, where visibility is already low.

malformalady:

Octopus releasing ink. In addition to its many other defenses, an octopus produces ink made of natural red melanin. It appears a dark brown when concentrated. A squirt of ink can help camouflage an animal, or distract a predator while the octopus escapes. The ink also contains tyrosinase, which irritates a predator’s eyes. The few octopus species that don’t produce ink tend to live in deep water, where visibility is already low.

(via halfman-halfocean)

High-res The greater blue-ringed octopus (Hapalochlaena lunulata) by Samantha Craven Only my second encounter with this tiniest of terrors. The three species of blue ringed octopus contain venom so potent that it contains all these words:  tetrodotoxin, 5-hydroxytryptamine, hyaluronidase, tyramine, histamine, tryptamine, octopamine,taurine, acetylcholine, and dopamine (Source). The venom is produced by bacteria in the salivary gland and happily there is no cure. So after you’ve been bitten, when you stop breathing and your hear stops beating, you better hope that your friends are good enough to manually respirate you until you get to hospital and/or metabolize all those words out. There is always the fact that you need never touch one. Or poke it.  

The greater blue-ringed octopus (Hapalochlaena lunulata) by Samantha Craven

Only my second encounter with this tiniest of terrors. The three species of blue ringed octopus contain venom so potent that it contains all these words:  tetrodotoxin, 5-hydroxytryptamine, hyaluronidase, tyramine, histamine, tryptamine, octopamine,taurine, acetylcholine, and dopamine (Source).

The venom is produced by bacteria in the salivary gland and happily there is no cure. So after you’ve been bitten, when you stop breathing and your hear stops beating, you better hope that your friends are good enough to manually respirate you until you get to hospital and/or metabolize all those words out.

There is always the fact that you need never touch one. Or poke it.