The Rules No Longer Apply: Octopus Edition

Does it feel like our previously ordered universe has taken a dramatic shift to a situation where rules no longer apply? Given that so much of the research world seems to be living in a state of constant confusion and contradiction, it’s no wonder that it seems like all bets are off and anything goes. The animal kingdom offers no respite as far as I’m concerned, because apparently everything I knew about octopi is wrong — at least according to the video below and the Argonaut.

Cephalopods are mollusks that, with the exception of the Nautilus, evolved away from having external shells. And while you may think the Argonaut must be closely related to the Nautilus, you’d be wrong — even though it is commonly called the “Paper Nautilus”, it is, in fact, an octopus (and is the only shelled octopus). The similarities are the result of convergent evolution, and while visually alike, the Argonaut’s shell is formed through an entirely different process and serves an entirely different purpose. The video below explains all this, and also how Aristotle was wrong about them, the pioneering work done on Argonauts by early marine biologist Jeanne Villepreux-Power, and the remarkable differences between male and female Argonauts.

Clearly we live in a world where rules can be broken, but at least the Argonaut gives us hope that it is possible to develop a protective shell.

David Crotty

@davidacrotty

David Crotty is a Senior Consultant at Clarke & Esposito, a boutique management consulting firm focused on strategic issues related to professional and academic publishing and information services. Previously, David was the Editorial Director, Journals Policy for Oxford University Press. He oversaw journal policy across OUP’s journals program, drove technological innovation, and served as an information officer. David acquired and managed a suite of research society-owned journals with OUP, and before that was the Executive Editor for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, where he created and edited new science books and journals, along with serving as a journal Editor-in-Chief. He has served on the Board of Directors for the STM Association, the Society for Scholarly Publishing and CHOR, Inc., as well as The AAP-PSP Executive Council. David received his PhD in Genetics from Columbia University and did developmental neuroscience research at Caltech before moving from the bench to publishing.