Archive for September 2011

Guy on Guy Squid Action

8:55 PM 0 Comments A+ a-


I read the article, 'Squid Males "Bisexual"—Evolved Shot-in-the-Dark Mating Strategy' and thought it was the coolest/funniest thing. Especially because I have read a couple of things lately that offer a debate about whether or not bisexuality is real. I guess it's a good possibility.



According to this article, there is a small group of squid (the Octopoteuthis deletron species to be exact) that live in the deepest parts of the Pacific Ocean who don't really care what sex they mate with. They tend to just swim up to the first of their kind they can find, stick a sack of sperm on it, and keep on swimming. This isn't because some squid like one gender over the other, it's because in water that deep it isn't easy for them to tell whether the squid they just encountered is male or female. The only thing that really differentiates the two is that females have a patch of wrinkled skin, which isn’t a lot to go by in water that deep.

Hendrik Hoving of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California led this study. Him and his colleagues recorded squid from 1,300 to 2,600 thousand feet deep in the water through robotic submarines. They observed more than 100 squid and saw that just about the same amount of males as females were carrying sperm packets on their bodies. In the words of the researchers, this shows "that males slap a sperm packet on just about anything with eight arms."

This action puts this certain species of squid near the top of a very short list of animals that show same-sex mating behavior. The list includes some primates and dolphins, but nothing to this degree. 

After reading this article, I realized that squid bisexuality isn't the same as human bisexuality. Although, it does show that, in the end, survival and reproduction is really the only thing that matters in the wild, no matter what jokes result. 




Chatty dolphins?

2:50 PM 0 Comments A+ a-


I love dolphins. I think they are absolutely beautiful. So when I read this article, it just gave me one more reason to adore them.


According to a New York Times article 'How Far Will Dolphins Go to Relate to Humans?,' dolphins have a lot more potential than we thought they were capable. And there is a possibility that they may be able to communicate these capabilities to humans.



Dr. Denise L. Herzing, the world's leading authority in dolphins, is working on a system that may allow two-way communication with these beautiful mammals. Herzing has worked for 25 years in the same spot, learning the names and personalities of three generations of the same family of dolphins. She not only observes them, but she completely immerses herself in their world. She swims with them, plays with them, and does her best to learn every detail about them. Herzing and her team have acquired 25 years of video with this crowd.

This prospect excites the scientific community. Something like this hasn't been seen since Jane Goodall’s research with chimps. But this isn't the first attempt to communicate with dolphins. Dr. Stan Kuczaj attempted a similar study in the 1980s in Orlando. The difference between his study and Herzing's is that his study was based on visual symbols, similar to apes, and not sound. Because of his background in this field, Kuczaj thinks that two-way communication is definitely a possibility. He is hopeful for Herzing, stating that if anybody can accomplish this, she can.

Herzing's study is based on an underwater computer that consists of wearable underwear. This underwear will be able to make dolphin noises, such as whistles, clicks, and a combination of the two. She is planning to make one of these noises and follow it with some type of action. Because dolphins are great at mimicking what they see, Herzing is hoping that they will be able to catch on quickly, connecting the noise with the action. She realizes that this is not a sure way of communicating with them, but she is confident that her approach has a good chance of working.

I think that this study would be amazing to follow during the next year when it gets put into action. Dolphins are beautiful creatures and can already interact with humans easily. Sea World is a great example of this.

This study also brings something else to mind. If it is successful, what doors could this possibly open? First apes, next dolphins and then what? It'd be cool to think that humans are capable of communicating with most, if not every, animals species. I don't see this happening soon, but maybe in the future.





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