14 fatos absolutamente impressionantes sobre polvos que só recentemente aprendemos

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14 fatos absolutamente impressionantes sobre polvos que só
recentemente aprendemos
“O polvo é uma criatura estúpida, pois se aproximará da mão de um homem se for abaixado na água”, escreveu o
antigo filósofo grego Aristóteles, mais de 2.300 anos atrás. Mas já sabemos melhor.
Os polvos são algumas das criaturas mais estranhamente fascinantes da Terra. Não só eles são inteligentes,
adaptáveis e astutos, mas também mostram uma capacidade notável de empatia. Além disso, sua inteligência
inegável é muito diferente da inteligência de outras criaturas, e é por isso que muitos os consideram a coisa mais
próxima que você pode ver de um alienígena.
Se você é fascinado por polvos, você não é o único – os cientistas também ficam intrigados, como destacado por
alguns dos estudos que eles têm publicado. Leia e prepare-se para ter sua mente explodida.
Créditos da imagem: Diane Picchiottino
Cada braço tem seu próprio mini-cérebro que pode tomar decisões
Ter um cérebro é um grande negócio em si, mas que tal ter nove?
Os pesquisadores há muito suspeitam que os braços do polvo têm uma mente própria, mas provando que é uma
coisa completamente diferente. Ainda assim, um estudo de 2019 conseguiu provar exatamente isso, mostrando que
os braços podem enviar informações uns aos outros enquanto ignoram o cérebro, basicamente mostrando um
modelo alternativo à inteligência do que a versão centralizada que temos.
Os braços do polvo têm um anel neural que ignora o cérebro, e assim os braços podem enviar informações uns aos
outros sem que o cérebro esteja ciente disso”, disse Dominic Sivitilli, autor do estudo. “Então, enquanto o cérebro
não tem certeza de onde os braços estão no espaço, os braços sabem onde estão e isso permite que os braços se
coordenem durante ações como locomoção rastejante”.
https://cdn.zmescience.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/diane-picchiottino-dW0gfo__uU8-unsplash-scaled.jpg
https://apnews.com/article/ri-state-wire-octopuses-ma-state-wire-ba6e3fa5bb804565b9d6d666b6d40a73
https://phys.org/news/2019-06-octopus-arms-decisions.html
https://phys.org/news/2019-06-octopus-arms-decisions.html
https://www.zmescience.com/feature-post/natural-sciences/animals/invertebrates/the-blue-ringed-octopus-small-adorable-and-very-dangerous/
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Créditos da imagem: Sigmund / Unsplash.
Eles podem mudar seu código genético
Todos nós já tivemos um resfriado. O que você faz quando você tem um resfriado? Descanse, beba muitos líquidos,
esse tipo de coisa. O que um polvo faz quando fica resfriado? Ele muda seu RNA para bater o frio.
Polvos e seus parentes (os cefalópodes) praticam um tipo de edição de RNA que é extremamente raro no reino
animal, ajustando a informação codificada por seus genes sem alterar os próprios genes – e eles fazem isso em
uma extensão muito maior do que qualquer outro grupo de animais.
É difícil dizer se essa capacidade incomum está ligada ao seu intelect alienígena, mas Noa Liscovitch-Brauer, uma
das pesquisadoras que trabalhou no estudo, disse ao The Atlantic que “Isso contribui para uma hipótese muito
convincente aos meus olhos”.
Eles constroem cidades (ou aldeias)
Certamente construir assentamentos é algo que só os humanos podem fazer na Terra, certo? Bem, pense outra vez!
Em 2017, os pesquisadores ficaram chocados ao encontrar outro assentamento de polvos.
https://cdn.zmescience.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/image-18.png
https://www.science.org/content/article/octopuses-rewrite-their-rna-beat-cold#:~:text=The%20Antarctic%20octopus%20edits%20its,the%20potassium%20channel's%20closing%20speed.
https://www.zmescience.com/ecology/animals-ecology/octopus-city-octlantis-19092017/
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Polvos na cidade e um mapa do assentamento. Créditos da imagem: Scheel et al.
Dizemos outro porque a primeira cidade do polvo foi encontrada em 2009, mas quando os pesquisadores
descobriram isso, eles pensaram que deveria ser uma ocorrência estranha. A teoria era que a Tótopole foi criada
apenas devido a um objeto humano não identificável que formou um ponto central que os cefalópodes cercados de
tocas. Mas quando eles encontraram um segundo assentamento semelhante, não poderia haver mais conversa
sobre acidentes estranhos.
A cidade não é tão grande, medindo 18 por 4 metros (59 por 13 pés) e deitado de 10 a 15 metros (33 a 49 pés)
debaixo d'água. Portanto, é realmente mais como uma aldeia do que uma cidade, mas isso não a torna menos
interessante. É composto por 16 indivíduos que construíram tocas de areia e conchas. Notavelmente, esses vizinhos
mostram interações complexas e nem sempre são amigáveis – eles até se perseguem e atacam um ao outro de vez
em quando. Não está claro por que os polvos constroem aldeias.
Eles podem arrancar tentáculos venenosos de outras criaturas e usá-los como armas.
Usar ferramentas é um sinal claro de inteligência, e os polvos dominaram isso há muito tempo. Eles podem usar
cascas de coco, objetos humanos descartados e todos os tipos de coisas que encontram no fundo do oceano como
ferramentas. Mas eles fazem algo muito mais frio.
O polvo coberto rasga tentáculos venenosos do Homem Português da Guerra e usa-os como armas. O Homem
Português o’War se assemelha a uma água-viva, mas na verdade é um organismo colonial que arrasta por trás dele
https://cdn.zmescience.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/image-19.png
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10236244.2017.1369851
https://www.zmescience.com/ecology/animals-ecology/the-hidden-world-of-octopus-cities-and-culture-shows-why-its-wrong-to-farm-them/
https://www.zmescience.com/science/oceanography/portuguese-man-of-war-06072015/
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vários longos tentáculos que entregam uma poderosa picada venenosa ao peixe.
The blanket octopus is immune to the venom, but it seems to be aware that most creatures are not — so it rips off the
tentacles from the Portuguese Man o’War and carries them around, using them as weapons. Biological weapons are
not unavailable to octopuses.
They can dream and change color when they do
A few years ago, a video of an octopus named Heidi became viral. Heidi was sleeping and changing colors; quite
possibly, she was dreaming.
Not everyone was convinced of this idea (and to be fair, some people still aren’t), but recent research suggests that
octopuses have alternating sleep states and could have fleeting dreams.
Proving that an animal dreams is one of the hardest things to do but increasingly, research is showing that some
animals (including octopuses) have alternating sleep states similar to humans and are quite likely to have dreams as
well.
They love to play and can get bored or annoyed
Juggling your aquarium flatmates, smashing rocks against the glass, and turning off the power by short circuiting a
lamp — Otto the octopus went on quite a spree because he was bored.
“We knew that he was bored as the aquarium is closed for winter, and at two feet, seven inches Otto had discovered
he was big enough to swing onto the edge of his tank and shoot out the 2000 Watt spot light above him with a
carefully directed jet of water,” said a spokesperson for the Sea Star Aquarium in Coburg, Germany, where this
happened. Otto is constantly craving for attention and doing stunts to get what he wants — one time, he threw rocks
at the aquarium glass; another time, he started juggling crabs from his aquarium; and sometimes, he arranges things
in the aquarium to his liking, much to the chagrin of his fellow inhabitants.
Otto isn’t nearly the only octopus to do this. Octopuses love to play and they get bored when they have nothing to do
— yet again, two clear hallmarks of higher intelligence. Their personality also plays a role: some love playing more
than others, and some can be a bit mischievous, like Otto.
https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(21)00191-7?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2589004221001917%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3328480/Otto-the-octopus-wrecks-havoc.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/studying-the-creativity-and-intelligence-of-the-octopus/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/studying-the-creativity-and-intelligence-of-the-octopus/
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Octopus playing with a diver. Image credits: Timothy Dunn.
They can recognize humans — and be nice or mean to them
Octopuses have large eyes and while they are color blind, their well developed visual system allows them to see
excellently underwater and they have no blind spots. Octopuses also seem able to visually differentiate between
members of their species, which is rare but not unique. But more impressively, they also seem able to differentiate
between people — and remember them.
For instance, an octopus from the University of Otago in New Zealand took a dislike to one of the staff members, and
every time the staff member would pass by the tank, the octopus would squirt a jet of water at her.
In a more controlled experiment, biologists at the Seattle Aquarium showed that octopuses can recall who feeds them
and who is mean to them. They also seem to appreciate when people try to communicate with them.
They can perceive light through their skin
Octopus skin contains a light-sensitive pigment that’s also found in their eyes. In other words, they can “see” (or
rather, perceive light) with their skin.
Image credits: Vlad Tchompalov.
These clever creatures can change color based on their surroundings, using specialized cells called chromatophores.
But these cells do even more than just changing color.
Basically, as environmental light hits the skin of the octopus, the light can stimulate the expansion or contraction of
these chromatophores. The cells also react to mechanical touch, and it’s not clear if they evolved this way as a
response to light, mechanical touch, or both.
https://cdn.zmescience.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/image-20.png
https://www.zmescience.com/ecology/animals-ecology/are-dogs-color-blind/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10888705.2010.483892?scroll=top&needAccess=true&journalCode=haaw20
https://nypost.com/2019/01/23/aquarium-honors-84-year-old-known-as-the-octopus-whisperer/
https://www.zmescience.com/science/biology/octopus-see-with-skin-0665467/
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They share some of our intelligence genes
Octopuses and humans don’t have much in common biologically, but we do share one important thing: jumping
genes.
So-called jumping genes, or transposons, make up 45% of the human genome. These genes are short DNA
sequences that have the ability to copy and paste themselves to another location in our genome. In octopuses, like in
humans, they have also been detected in areas of the brain linked to behavioral plasticity — adaptability. This is a
sort of confirmation that octopuses are adaptable, and the similarity to humans is striking.
Image credits: Oleksandr Sushko.
In fact, one of the researchers working on the study ‘literally jumped on the chair’ when they noticed activity in the
octopus’ vertical lobe — the structure that is their seat of learning and cognitive abilities (sort of like how the
hippocampus is for humans).
They’ve learned how to use the litter from the ocean floor
Using tools is one thing, but adapting to using man-made litter is a different challenge, one that octopuses pass with
flying colors.
Stuff sinks down in the ocean, and a lot of that is our fault — because the stuff that sinks down is often pollution.
That’s obviously bad for wildlife, but some creatures (you can probably guess which ones) have actually learned to
use that to their advantage.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1832089/#:~:text=Transposable%20elements%20(TEs)%20are%20mobile,human%20genome%20(Lander%20et%20al.
https://cdn.zmescience.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/oleksandr-sushko-W6cpcS9xhZE-unsplash-scaled.jpg
https://www.zmescience.com/science/octopuses-use-rubbish-sea-floor-35734253/
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Octopuses have been found using litter (mostly for defense) several times, and they’re able to use a large variety of
objects: from cans and bottles to glasses and even batteries. They use the litter for camouflage for themselves or for
laying eggs. However, hiding or laying eggs among plastic and chemical pollution could expose octopuses to harmful
chemicals.
They can pull themselves out of the water and walk on land
It may seem crazy, but most species of octopus can survive out of water for 30-60 minutes, and they often use this
ability.
Basically, octopuses use their tentacles to walk on land if they get trapped in a low tide, or if they are chased by
predators — sometimes, even to find their own prey.
Remarkably, this doesn’t only happen in the wild. Inky, a male common New Zealand octopus, escaped his enclosure
through a small opening, slid across the floor when no one was watching, and squeezed his body through a narrow
pipe leading to open waters.
They’re older than the dinosaurs
There’s an octopus fossil from a period called the Carboniferous, some 296 million years ago — for comparison,
dinosaurs appeared 252 million years ago. But that’s not even the oldest one we know. The oldest known octopus
comes from around 329 million years ago and had 10 arms.
They can feel emotional pain
When we talk about pain, we don’t just refer to a simple reflex reaction to something harmful — pain also involves an
emotional component, and octopuses seem to experience it as well.
A 2021 study showed that octopuses feel pain much like mammals do, supporting the case for establishing welfare
regulations for these animals.
While again, this is very hard to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt, a growing body of research hints at the
complex emotions that octopuses feel. If they can feel bored, curious, or annoyed, it’s hard to argue that they don’t
have emotions.
Despite all this, some people want to farm and eat them
We’re still only starting to understand them — perhaps this is the craziest thing of all. We’ve known octopuses for
thousands of years, but we’re still just scratching the surface of their cognitive abilities. A hundred years ago, most
people would have likely agreed with Aristotle, but now we know much better. Even just two decades ago, our
understanding of them was completely different, and it’s changing with every study and observation.
There are more than 300 different species of octopus that we know of, and many (if not all) seem to have such a
developed intelligence. But octopuses are in trouble. Seriously threatened by pollution, overfishing, and loss of
habitat, most species are struggling. Their decline is accentuated by the fact that their food is also severely
threatened.
To make matters even worse for octopuses, there are growing calls to build octopus farms. Just now, when we are
learning that octopuses feel emotions and have culture, we want to grow them as meat animals. “It is exactly the
wrong moment to propose such a scheme. We now know better,” wrote Professor of Philosophy Kristin Andrews in
an article for The Conversation.
If you’re looking for more information about octopuses, there are a lot of studies and articles out there, as well as
several books and documentaries. In fact, My Octopus Teacher, one such documentary, was awarded the Oscar for
https://www.weforum.org/videos/octopuses-found-using-litter-for-shelter-in-the-oceans#:~:text=Scientists%20have%20identified%2024%20different,waters%20to%20the%20deep%20sea.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/08/bottles-cans-batteries-octopuses-found-using-litter-on-seabed
https://cdn.zmescience.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/octopus-on-land.gif
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004221001978
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo2378
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/octopus-teachers-demonstrate-they-feel-emotional-pain/
https://theconversation.com/the-hidden-world-of-octopus-cities-and-culture-shows-why-its-wrong-to-farm-them-180536
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