Octopus uses paint pot lid to build a Dulux new home

[mercurial]

To some, a discarded paint pot lid thrown on the seabed may be litter, but to a cunning octopus it presented a great piece of building material for a new home.

The cephalopod is part of a species known as the coconut octopus because they are renowned for using discarded coconut shell halves thrown into the sea by humans to build closable lairs (presumably this octopus was off to find something shaped like a paint pot).
Once the eight-legged creature has gripped an item, it uses two of its tentacles to 'walk' in a bipedal manner.
The soft-bodied creature has been known to carry debris up to 20 metres to construct a defensive fortress.
The medium-sized cephalopod, belonging to the genus Amphioctopus, is found in tropical waters of the western Pacific Ocean.

It frequently buries itself in the sand with only its eyes uncovered as it preys upon shrimp, crabs and clams.

British photographer Ed Brown was on a scuba diving holiday in Ambon, Indonesia, when he snapped this coconut octopus.

Link

 

[Ninja'd]

I, for one welcome our new mollusc overlords.

 

[porchrat]

wow that is... horrifically written.

Still very cool. Cephalopods ROCK! Go little guy go!

 

[The_Unbeliever]

I, for one welcome our new mollusc overlords.

hehehehe

 

[LazyLion]

Hermit Crabs Need You To 3-D Print New Shells For Them

http://www.popsci.com/science/artic...cing-science-help-save-species-shell-shortage

Even hermit crabs aren’t immune to swings in their own ecological economies. A global shortage of shells is leaving the entire species short on housing, and the DIY design community over at Makerbot isn’t having it. Stepping in to bring shelter to the shell-less, Makerbot has launched Project Shellter along with artist in residence Miles Lightwood to crowdsource new shell designs that can be fabricated on Makerbot's 3-D printers.

Hermit crabs, as many a child could tell you, are not born with shells on their backs. They have to scavenge for suitable housing, which they usually find in a shell. But the current shell shortage has them turning to all kinds of alternatives that are less than ideal. Per Bre Pettis over on the Makerbot blog: “With a shell shortage, hermit crabs around the world are being forced to stick their butts into bottles, shotgun shells, and anything else they can find. This is not acceptable. As a community, we can reach out to this vulnerable species and offer our digital design skills and 3D printing capabilities and give hermit crabs another option: 3D printed shells.”

Pettis and company have set up a “crabitat” in its Brooklyn HQ, and Lightwood is setting up a West Coast crabitat in Los Angeles. Right now, no one is sure if crabs will take to a 3-D printed shell, or what kinds of materials they might find suitable for a fabricated shell. By turning to the community, Makerbot hopes to come up with a range of shell designs to try out in the crabitats. If they find one that fits, Makerbots everywhere could be turned to the task of creating housing for the world’s population of hermit crab have-nots.

If you’ve got a Makerbot, or just some spare time and some design skills, you can participate by uploading your designs to Thingiverse.

http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-c...print-the-perfect-hermit-crab-shell-20111024/
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technol...hort-shells-3d-printing-rescue-013736318.html