Entries Tagged "squid"

Page 73 of 108

Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Ink from the Jurassic

Seems that squid ink hasn’t changed much in 160 million years. From this, researchers argue that the security mechanism of spraying ink into the water and escaping is also that old.

Simon and his colleagues used a combination of direct, high-resolution chemical techniques to determine that the melanin had been preserved. The researchers also compared the chemical composition of the ancient squid ink remains to that of modern squid ink from Sepia officinalis, a squid common to the Mediterranean, North and Baltic seas.

“It’s close enough that I would argue that the pigmentation in this class of animals has not evolved in 160 million years,” Simon said. “The whole machinery apparently has been locked in time and passed down through succeeding generations of squid. It’s a very optimized system for this animal and has been optimized for a long time.”

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

Posted on May 25, 2012 at 4:01 PM • View Comments

Friday Squid Blogging: How Squid Hear

Interesting research:

The squid use two closely spaced organs called statocysts to sense sound.

“I think of a statocyst as an inside-out tennis ball,” explains Dr Mooney.

“It’s got hairs on the inside and this little dense calcium stone that sits on those hair cells.

“What happens is that the sound wave actually moves the squid back and forth, and this dense object stays relatively still. It bends the hair cells and generates a nerve response to the brain.”

[…]

“They react in about 10 milliseconds,” he says. “That’s really fast; it’s essentially a reflex. That’s really important in terms of behavioural responses because they’re not thinking about processing it; they’re not deciding whether they should react—they’re just doing it.

And he adds: “The responses can be really dynamic. They can be a change in colour; they can be jetting (moving quickly) or inking responses. Squid are also very cool because you can look at a range of colour changes—is it a really startling colour change or a more subtle change?

“Squid can probably use their hearing to find their way around the environment—to sense the soundscape of the environment; for example, to find their way towards a reef or away from a reef, towards the surface or away from the surface.”

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

Posted on March 30, 2012 at 4:28 PM • View Comments

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Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.