If anyone has a paper anniversary coming up, such as a year of blogging or a year since a creationist promised to “get back to you” about their debunked claim, one of Joseph Wu’s origami octopods might be the perfect gift—to themselves.

Hop over to The Science Pundit for a quick look at how dolphins prepare fresh, in fact very fresh, cuttlefish. They de-ink and de-bone it, which is pretty clever when they have no hands.

Genetic analysis of octopodes indicates that they developed in the ocean around Antarctica. They spread out from that continent when an ice sheet covered it and created cold water currents in all directions to the north.

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) – Many octopuses evolved from a common ancestor that lived off Antarctica more than 30 million years ago, according to a “Census of Marine Life” that is seeking to map the oceans from microbes to whales.

The $650 million census is on track for completion in 2010, assessing about 230,000 known marine species, a statement said. It has identified 5,300 likely new species, of everything from fish or corals. So far, 110 have been confirmed as new.

Among the findings, genetic evidence showed that the tentacles of the octopus family pointed to an Antarctic ancestor for many deep sea species. A modern octopus called Adelieledone in Antarctica seemed the closest relative of the original.

Octopuses apparently spread around the world after Antarctica became covered with a continent-wide ice sheet more than 30 million years ago, a shift that helped create oxygen-rich ocean currents flowing north, a report said.

“Isolated in new habitat conditions, many different species evolved; some octopuses, for example, losing their defensive ink sacs — pointless at perpetually dark depths,” the census said.

Classification: Biota > Animalia (Kingdom) > Mollusca (Phylum) > Conchifera (Subphylum) > Cephalopoda (Class) > Coleoidea (Subclass) > Octopodiformes (Superorder) > Octopoda (Order) > Incirrata (Suborder) > Octopodoidea (Superfamily) > Octopodidae (Family) > Adelieledone Allcock et al., 20

It’s Cephalopod Appreciation Day!

Image from the U.S. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

The science bloggers have found a link to a very cute, amusing, and touching story about octopus love from the students of Gobelins art school.

Oktapodi” primé au SIGGRAPH 2008 09/09/08

“Oktapodi”, film de fin d’études réalisé en 2007 par des élèves de la formation Conception et réalisation de films d’animation à GOBELINS, l’école de l’image, a remporté deux Prix au SIGGRAPH 2008 : le “Best of Show” et l’”Audience Prize”. Evénement incontournable, ce salon international réunit chaque année les professionnels du domaine des techniques interactives et du graphisme numérique aux Etats-Unis. “Oktapodi” a déjà reçu une dizaine des distinctions les plus prestigieuses du monde de l’animation.