tmazanec1
Randall's Head Servant (300-799)
Posts: 463
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Post by tmazanec1 on Jul 6, 2013 16:22:10 GMT -5
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Post by pitbulllady on Jul 6, 2013 17:16:51 GMT -5
I actually showed this video last school year to my sixth graders when we covering Cephalopods in Science, and they were like, "oh, boy, a bunch of seawee...OH, SNAP! Didja SEE THAT??" It takes a LOT to impress a sixth grader to that degree, lol. I've always maintained that Randall's camouflage ability is NOT a chameleon trait, not reptilian at all, but that this ability got into the his family's gene pool from one of his distant ancestors having a taste for octopus or calamari. No lizard can match his, OR an octopus', camouflage abilities. Chameleons do not even change color to hide, but to stand OUT from their backgrounds and communicate with other chameleons, and they change slllloooooowwwwlllly. An octopus can change literally in the blink of an eye, and not just color and pattern, but shape and texture, too. These things really are remarkable critters, and are extremely intelligent, to the extent that my Marine Biology professor once said that we should be very thankful that they only live 2-5 years, tops, otherwise they'd figure out how to take over.
pitbulllady
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Post by pitvipersnake on Oct 2, 2013 9:42:15 GMT -5
That is so true. It always really annoys me when people say Randall's colour changing is like a chameleon when anyone who knows anything about chemeleon's knows it isn't.
I also agree with you about the octopuses. I did a project on cephalopods in uni and since then I've always thought they have got to be one of the most amazing (and under rated) groups of animal on the planet.
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Post by pitbulllady on Oct 2, 2013 11:36:30 GMT -5
That is so true. It always really annoys me when people say Randall's colour changing is like a chameleon when anyone who knows anything about chemeleon's knows it isn't. I also agree with you about the octopuses. I did a project on cephalopods in uni and since then I've always thought they have got to be one of the most amazing (and under rated) groups of animal on the planet. They really are amazing, and are one of the few animals aside from humans that exhibit self-awareness. Randall's ability is very much like that of a cephalopod. Anyone who is familiar with chameleons isn't going to see many, if ANY, chameleon characteristics in Randall. He doesn't move like one, he's not built like one, he doesn't have a tongue like a chameleon, or feet/hands like a chameleon, and of course, his color-change ability is very different. The fact that so many people think of Randall as a "chameleon" just reinforces how little most people actually know about lizards, and about reptiles in general, and they know even less about cephalopods. pitbulllady |
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Post by pitvipersnake on Oct 2, 2013 12:23:49 GMT -5
I know. Randall always looked more like a gecko than a chameleon to me, especially with his wall climbing ability.
It constantly surprises me how little most people, even intelligent people, know about reptiles and any kind of invertebrate. People sometimes ask me things like 'what's the difference between a reptile and an amphibian?' and I think 'How can you not know that?' how could they have lived their entire lives without finding it out?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2013 2:38:17 GMT -5
One less reason to swim in the ocean lol |
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Post by pitbulllady on Oct 3, 2013 9:41:00 GMT -5
One less reason to swim in the ocean lol Octopi are shy animals, though, not aggressive. You notice that the octopus in this video tries to avoid the divers and does not confront them at all. I don't swim in the ocean, but it's mostly because of nasty stuff that WE put in it, especially close to shore, although I have had some painful encounters with various Cnidarians, and had a large shark thrown against me by a wave(not the shark's fault), resulting in what looked like a pretty bad case of "road rash" from his skin. Still, the water itself is more dangerous and claims more human lives than all of the creatures that call it home, just because it's WATER. We aren't designed to survive in water. This is what bothers me; people see an animal that does not look human, that isn't furry, and automatically think that it's a dangerous, horrible thing to be either avoided or eliminated. pitbulllady |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2013 14:12:16 GMT -5
One less reason to swim in the ocean lol Octopi are shy animals, though, not aggressive. You notice that the octopus in this video tries to avoid the divers and does not confront them at all. I don't swim in the ocean, but it's mostly because of nasty stuff that WE put in it, especially close to shore, although I have had some painful encounters with various Cnidarians, and had a large shark thrown against me by a wave(not the shark's fault), resulting in what looked like a pretty bad case of "road rash" from his skin. Still, the water itself is more dangerous and claims more human lives than all of the creatures that call it home, just because it's WATER. We aren't designed to survive in water. This is what bothers me; people see an animal that does not look human, that isn't furry, and automatically think that it's a dangerous, horrible thing to be either avoided or eliminated. pitbulllady Lol I know octopi aren't aggressive. Still the ocean scares me though. The beaches here in Sf aren't that nice. Most are rip tides, which I got caught in once  . As far as animals go the scariest I've encounter were barracudas, and we have some pretty nasty jellies here too. I've heard we have bull sharks here but never seen one. |
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. As far as animals go the scariest I've encounter were barracudas, and we have some pretty nasty jellies here too. I've heard we have bull sharks here but never seen one.