A LITTLE ANATOMY. BLUE BLOOD AND THREE HEARTS
Octopuses are cousins of oysters. Like all molluscs, their bodies are soft, boneless. But the shell, or rather its underdeveloped remnant (two cartilaginous rods), is not worn on the back, but under the skin of the back.
Octopuses are not simple molluscs, but cephalopods ... Tentacles-arms grow on their heads, which are also called legs, because animals walk on them along the bottom, as if on stilts.
Squids and cuttlefish are also cephalopods. They differ from octopuses only in appearance. Squids and cuttlefish have not eight, but ten tentacles and a body with fins (ordinary octopuses have no fins). The torso of the cuttlefish is flat, like a cake; in squid it is cone-shaped, like a pin. At the narrow end of the "skittles" (where the tail should be!), Rhomboid fins stick out to the sides.
The shell of the cuttlefish is a limestone, the squid has a chitinous feather, similar to the Roman gladius sword. Gladius is also called an underdeveloped squid shell.
The tentacles of cephalopods surround the mouth with a corolla. Suckers sit on the tentacles in two rows or in one, less often in four. At the base of the tentacles, the suckers are smaller, in the middle - the largest, and at the ends - very tiny.
The mouth of the cephalopod is small, the pharynx is muscular, and in the pharynx there is a horny beak, black (in the squid it is brown) and crooked, like in a parrot. A thin esophagus stretches from the pharynx to the stomach. On the way, like a dart, it pierces the brain. After all, octopuses also have a brain - and quite large: it has fourteen lobes. The octopus brain is covered with a rudimentary cortex of the smallest gray cells - a memory control room, and from above it is also protected by a cartilaginous skull. Brain cells from all sides tightly fit the esophagus. Therefore, octopuses (squid and cuttlefish, too), despite their very predatory appetites, cannot swallow prey larger than a forest ant.
But nature has endowed them with a grater, with which they prepare mashed crab and fish. The fleshy tongue of the cephalopods is covered with a hemispherical horny sheath. The cover is seated with the smallest teeth. The cloves grind the food, turning it into gruel. Food is moistened in the mouth with saliva and enters the stomach, then into the cecum - and this is essentially a second stomach.
There is both a liver and a pancreas. The digestive juices they secrete are very active - they digest food quickly, in four hours. In other cold-blooded animals, digestion is delayed for many hours, in flounder, for example, for 40-60 hours.
But here's what is most striking: the cephalopods have not one, but three hearts: one drives blood through the body, and the other two push it through the gills. The main heart beats 30-36 times per minute.
They have and unusual blood - blue! deep blue when oxygenated and pale in veins.
The color of the blood of animals depends on the metals that make up the blood cells (erythrocytes), or substances dissolved in the plasma.
In all vertebrates, as well as in earthworms, leeches, house flies and some mollusks, iron oxide is in a complex combination with blood hemoglobin. Therefore, their blood is red. In the blood of many sea worms, instead of hemoglobin, there is a similar substance - chlorocruorin. Ferrous iron was found in its composition, and therefore the color of the blood of these worms is green.
And scorpions, spiders, crayfish and our friends - octopuses and cuttlefish have blue blood. Instead of hemoglobin, it contains hemocyanin, with copper as metal. Copper gives their blood a bluish color.
With metals, or rather with those substances of which they are included, oxygen is combined in the lungs or gills, which is then delivered through the blood vessels to the tissues.
The blood of cephalopods is distinguished by two more striking properties: a record protein content in the animal world (up to 10%) and a concentration of salts typical for sea water.
The latter circumstance has great evolutionary meaning. In order to understand it, we will make a small digression, in a break between the stories about octopuses, we will get acquainted with a creature close to the ancestors of all life on Earth, and we will follow on a simpler example how blood was born and what paths its development took.
"Soak in the toilet".
© Narodnoe.
Many legends, legends and myths were left to us by our ancestors. Some have come down to us in the form of fairy tales, others have formed the basis of textbooks and have become unshakable postulates.
Everyone, of course, read a collection of Himalayan tales, many are familiar with the collection of Kamchadal myths. The differences are clearly visible. There are no gods in the tales of Kamchadals. There are spirits, there are people, there are animals. The life of the gods is described in the Himalayan tales.
It is interesting that in no corner of the world there are no legends about commoners - vampires. They are always representatives of the upper strata of society. At that time, characters such as mermaids, gobies, dwarfs, good and evil sorceresses in the tales of any nation do not have, as it was said in the old days, a class affiliation.
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To ensure life, a living organism must consume oxygen and emit carbon dioxide. The transfer of these gases from the external environment to the tissues of the body and vice versa is carried out by the blood. Respiratory blood pigments contain metal ions that can bind oxygen molecules and, if necessary, release them.
In humans, the respiratory blood pigment is hemoglobin, which includes ferrous ions. Thanks to hemoglobin, our blood is red.
The octopus has blue blood. Also in spiders and cuttlefish. The blue color is given to the blood by the pigment hemocyanin, an enzyme that contains copper.
In hemocyanin, one oxygen molecule binds to two copper atoms. In this case, the protein turns blue and fluorescence is observed. Hemocyanin, like hemoglobin, interacts reversibly with carbon monoxide, forming colorless compounds.
The ability of hemoglobin to carry oxygen is 5 times higher than that of hemocyanin.
Monovalent copper compounds are readily oxidized by atmospheric oxygen. Therefore, copper-containing enzymes, catalyzing oxidation processes in the body, themselves are quickly oxidized, as a result of which their function is restored. However, copper plays an essential role in blood formation. First of all, copper binds to albumin, then copper passes to the liver and from there it returns to the blood serum as part of the blue protein ceruloplasmin. This enzyme regulates the balance of copper and ensures that excess copper is excreted from the body. Ceruloplasmin not only participates in the synthesis of hemoglobin, but also promotes the formation of transferrins, blood plasma proteins that transport iron ions. So copper and iron are biologically related, playing an important role in metabolic processes.
Hemocyanin-based blood has some advantages, but even more disadvantages. Especially in terms of blood transport of carbon dioxide. With an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the blood, the concentration of carbonic acid (Н2СО3) increases, i.e. blood acidity increases (blood pH decreases). Hemoglobin, on the other hand, stabilizes the acidity of the blood. And if in an environment with a low oxygen content, copper can easily replace iron as a carrier of oxygen and carbon dioxide, like an inhabitant of the deep sea, an octopus, then in the earth's atmosphere, mammals cannot.
Violation of the synthesis of ceruloplasmin leads to Wilson-Konovalov disease. This is the name of a congenital disorder of copper metabolism, which leads to severe hereditary diseases of the central nervous system and internal organs. When there is more copper in the liver than the proteins that bind it, oxidative damage occurs. This leads to liver inflammation, fibrosis and, as a result, cirrhosis. Also, copper is released from the liver into the bloodstream, which is not associated with ceruloplasmin. This free copper is deposited throughout the body, especially in the kidneys, eyes, and brain.
The main role in the pathogenesis is played by impaired copper metabolism, its accumulation in the nervous, renal, hepatic tissue and the cornea, as well as toxic copper damage to these organs. A metabolic disorder is expressed in a violation of the synthesis and a decrease in the concentration of ceruloplasmin in the blood. Large-node or mixed cirrhosis is formed in the liver. In the kidneys, the proximal tubules are primarily affected. In the brain, the basal ganglia, the dentate nucleus of the cerebellum and the substantia nigra are mostly affected.
The gene for Wilson-Konovalov disease is located in the long arm of chromosome 13. More often men are sick, the average age of the onset of the disease is 11-25 years. It occurs on average in the population 3: 100000. The prevalence is high in closely related marriages.
© From smart medical books.
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Zeus reigns high on the bright Olympus, surrounded by a host of gods.
Here are his wife Hera, and the golden-haired Apollo with his sister Artemis,
and the golden Aphrodite, and the mighty daughter of Zeus, Athena, and many other gods.
© Nikolay Kun. Legends and myths of Ancient Greece.
"The legends of deep antiquity" tell us that the gods came from heaven. Not a single fairy tale, not a single myth of any people in the world says that the gods (god) came from a neighboring village, a neighboring cave or from a nearby grove. Amazing unanimity! It is difficult to suspect a deliberate conspiracy of Indians and Indians, Maori and Maya, Nenets and Germans.
From the book of Nikolai Kun, we learned in our distant childhood that nothing human was alien to the gods. Loving gods and goddesses often indulged in love with mere mortals. Perhaps, Zeus himself walked "to the left" more often than others, spinning recklessly romances with earthly women. It was from such an affair with the beautiful Io that the first king of Egypt, Epaph, was born. The descendant of which was the well-known invincible hero Hercules. Which was not taken by a sharp sword, or fire, or water, or copper pipes. And the hero died, wearing a cloak soaked in the blood of a centaur mixed with the poison of the Lernaean hydra.
"The legends of deep antiquity" also tell us that "blue blood" served as a sign of "chosenness" and confirmed the right to reign. It is known that in ancient times only gods and their descendants could reign from a love affair with earthly inhabitants ... The gods, according to the legends of all peoples, came to Earth from heaven, possibly from another planet, since the gods of the ancients are quite bodily. That the notorious Maya, that the ancient Indians, the gods are represented as the inhabitants of heaven. And the blue color of blood is due to the fact that copper in the blood serves to nourish the body. In many ancient Indian images, the gods, moreover, have blue faces.
Atheists, ufologists and charlatans (however, there is an opinion that these words are synonyms) call the aliens not gods, but humanoids.
Accordingly, since there was hemocyanin in the blood of the aliens instead of hemoglobin, in the crust of the planet from which the gods came to Earth, copper obviously prevailed over iron. And the oxygen content in the atmosphere was less than on Earth. Arriving on Earth, the gods found themselves on a planet with a deficiency of copper and an excess of iron. It was necessary to adapt to these conditions.
First, you need to continuously replenish your own body with copper.
Second, iron is more chemically active than copper. Therefore, getting into the blood of the gods, it must inevitably strive to displace copper from its compounds.
The easiest way to make these tasks easier is to follow a diet high in copper and low in iron. This is, first of all, grain. Cereals contain almost no iron. Almost all Mesoamerican civilizations - Olmec culture, Mayan civilization, Aztec civilization, etc. - owe their appearance and prosperity, first of all, to the culture of corn, because it was she who formed the basis of highly productive agriculture, without which a developed society could not arise. The special role of corn in the life of the ancient Maya was well reflected by their religious system, one of the central gods of which was the corn god Quetzalcoatl.
The increased copper content and the decreased iron content in the food of the gods enhanced the antibacterial properties that the blood of the gods possessed due to the copper in the blood. These antibacterial properties protected against terrestrial infections and ensured longevity for aliens. Hence the belief in the immortality of the gods.
Since in the blood of the gods it is not hemoglobin, but hemocyanin, which slightly changes its acidity when the oxygen concentration changes, and therefore is less able to neutralize excess acidity when the oxygen concentration changes, the acid-base balance of the blood will inevitably be disturbed, its pH will drop. However, the gods figured out how to normalize the acid-base balance.
From a school chemistry textbook, it is known how: by adding alkalis or bases. Where can I get them? It is appropriate to recall the well-known formula C2H5OH. The hydroxyl group OH helps out. From the same Nicholas Kun, we know that the gods also invented wine, and the chief winemaker Bacchus, he, Dionysus, taught people to make wine. Thus, wine drinking allowed the gods to regulate the acid-base balance of their blue blood. The list of Mayan sacrifices (the very ones about which they lie that they predicted the end of the world in December) are about a dozen alcoholic drinks made from maize.
It should be noted that on Earth the gods, according to all, without exception, mythologies, lived high in the mountains. The oxygen concentration is lower there. From this we can conclude that the atmospheric pressure and the relative oxygen content on the home planet of the gods are lower than on Earth.
Leaving numerous offspring on Earth with a fair amount of blue blood, the gods either ascended to their historical homeland, or ...
When crossing two heterozygous descendants of the first
generations among themselves in the second generation
splitting in a certain numerical ratio:
phenotype 3: 1, genotype 1: 2: 1.
© Mendel.
... Or it can be assumed that the myths about the immortality of the gods are somewhat exaggerated. The gods left the Earth, returned to their home planet, leaving behind, here and there, pyramids, Stonehenge, dolmens and other megaliths. Including auto- (?) Portraits on Easter Island. And also the legends about Atlantis and the second coming.
However, the time of the last coming of the gods (before Christ's coming) to Earth is known. This happened around 1400-1300 BC. The reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep the fourth (Akhenaten), 1375-1336 BC NS. became the time of radical religious reform that shook all the foundations of the traditional ancient Egyptian society, civilization and culture. The reasons for this revolutionary reform of Akhenaten have not been clarified by historians.
The reasons for the death of Akhenaten, who ruled for 17 years, are also unclear. It is believed that he was poisoned, even one of the paintings depicts an attempt on his life. He was buried in his tomb, which he carved into the rocks for himself and for the whole family. Later, his mummy was transferred to the necropolis of the Valley of the Kings. Researchers note the unusually long face and limbs of the pharaoh, excessive even for dolichocephalics.
Many Egyptologists claim that the last goddess on earth was the unearthly beauty Nefertiti, the wife of Akhenaten. The images of the queen are well preserved. But for many centuries, enthusiasts have been trying in vain to find the mummy of Nefertitti. Many hot and big minds believe that Nefertiti arrived on Earth on a mission, after completing which she left the planet.
Akhenaten's son, Tutankhamun (Tutankhaton), who ruled around 1332-1323. BC NS. came to the throne at the age of 10. Tutankhamun's tomb is well preserved and therefore thoroughly investigated.
After 9 years of reign, having lived to be only 19 years old, as established by anatomical examination of his mummy, Tutankhamun died. The early death of Tutankhamun prompted speculation that he was killed by conspirators. Modern research suggests that Tutankhamun died as a result of an unknown illness, possibly caused by poisoning.
So, the reigning persons possessed the blue component of blood, the percentage of which, with further incest, became less and less. But, according to the inexorable laws of genetics, in aristocratic families, in some generation, according to these laws, individuals with blue blood were inevitably born.
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The divine beauty and unearthly hypersexuality of Cleopatra, who seduced two of the greatest Roman generals, is noted in history. According to the chronicles, Cleopatra committed suicide at the age of 31 with the help of poison.
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Poison ... Again poison ... And early death ... As well as the early death of Hercules came from poison ...
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On April 13, 1519, in Florence, the daughter of Catherine de Medici was born into the family of the Duke of Urbino and his wife Countess of Auvergne. Future Queen of France, wife of Henry the Second of Valois. Catherine's parents died in the first month of life. Mother was 19 years old, father - 27. Catherine was married to Prince Henry of Valois at the age of 14.
In 1536, the eighteen-year-old Dauphin Francis died unexpectedly, and Catherine's husband became heir to the French throne. Until now, Catherine is branded a poisoner, for immediately a version arose that the Dauphin was poisoned by Catherine.
After the death of Henry II, his eldest son, fifteen-year-old Francis II, who died shortly before his 17th birthday from a "brain boil", became the king of France.
Equally harsh legends, rumors and traditions came from antiquity about the Borgia family, which became the personification of ruthless politics and sexual promiscuity. The aristocratic name Borgia is associated with the practice of incest, poisoning, and murder. Lucretia alone is worth something.
The ominous crimes of Lucrezia Borgia were introduced to the general public by the hitherto fashionable Victor Hugo. And many others.
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The novels of Sabatini, Dumas, Mérimée, the Golons and other authors, especially Maurice Druon, tell about the inevitable tendency of aristocratic families. The trend is as follows. Frequent early mysterious death, similar to the death of young Hercules. Symbolically, this trend can be called the title of Druon's novel: "Poison and Crown."
But maybe it wasn't quite right? Maybe royals can be less ashamed of their bloodthirsty ancestors? Maybe not with poison, but only with fire and sword, sword and dagger, feather and ax, they defended their domination for the good of the people, a person of blue blood?
Perhaps they can. They can, rightly, throw a stone from the heart.
The signs of arsenic poisoning, which, as Druon and Co scare us, poisoned the heirs to the throne, mostly young ones, coincide with the signs of Wilson's disease. The disease affects a person at an early age. So isn't it time, finally, to acquit Catherine de Medici? No one did the supposedly poisoned dauphin, an analysis for the content of copper in the liver. Likewise, no one did a chemical analysis of the allegedly poisoned cloak of Hercules. And it's all about blue blood. And there weren't thousands of sinister poisonings.
It is known that persons of blue blood were combined in marriage with the same chosen ones. And Wilson's disease accompanies closely related marriages. At the same time, the Chukchi, Nganasans, Eskimos and Khanty-Mansi do not suffer from Wilson's disease! Although there are countless kinship marriages among these peoples. Why? Because there are no blue bloods among these peoples. No Bourbons, no Habsburgs, no Holstein-Gottorp, no Yorks. You will not find among the chums and yarangas and the House of Orleans. That is why Wilson's disease does not occur in the Chukchi. Their ancestors did not have blue blood, because they were not visited by the gods. Another confirmation of this is the following factor.
Representatives of these ethnic groups have special forms of genes that encode enzymes responsible for the utilization of alcohol. These enzymes have increased activity at the first stage of ethanol utilization and decreased activity at the second. At high levels of alcohol in the blood, acetaldehyde is formed in high concentrations, which causes a very strong toxic effect of alcohol and the accelerated and malignant formation of alcoholism. The reason for the preservation of these genes is that, on a historical scale, these ethnic groups have not gone through a long, centuries-old path of adaptation to alcoholic beverages, in contrast to the peoples of the Levant and southern Europe. That is why these peoples, not chosen by God, are so prone to alcoholism. One shot and you're done, alcoholic. They say that in tsarist Russia there was criminal responsibility for the soldering of the peoples of the north.
But the "anti-alcohol gene" called ADH2 * 2, which encodes a high content of the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, is present in most Ashkenazim and Sephardim. Among them, the least of all are alcoholics and those prone to alcoholism. Which, in this light, there is nothing to even try to object to the statement about God's chosen people. For alcohol is an earthly invention of the gods. They taught it, and passed it on with blood ... to God's chosen people. It all fits together.
Once upon a time there was a man who had
a lot of all good:
he had beautiful houses in the city and outside the city,
gold and silver dishes, embroidered chairs and
gilded carriages,
but unfortunately this man had a blue beard,
and this beard gave him such an ugly and formidable look,
that all the girls and women, it happened, as soon as they envy him,
So God give me your legs as soon as possible.
© Perrault
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Years passed, centuries passed, the aristocracy, blue blood, the descendants of the gods, gradually assimilated among the people of red blood, with each generation more and more adapting to life on our planet.
But the inexorable laws discovered by Padre Mendel lead, in a generation, to Wilson's disease in aristocratic families. And the myths about evil, cruel poisoners and poisoners of blue blood, which have come down to our time from time immemorial, and colorfully presented to us by various talented writers, are greatly exaggerated. Disorders of copper metabolism and increased levels of carbon dioxide in the blood played a fatal role in the fate of the aristocracy.
But this does not mean at all that the persons of blue blood did not commit other crimes due to an imbalance in blood acidity and a violation of copper metabolism in the body. Obviously, they were constantly looking for ways to make life easier for the heirs of the blue blood. Blue blood in the conditions of the Earth became poison. Of course, an antidote was sought. And it has undoubtedly been found. Many secrets are buried behind the thick walls of medieval castles. But something, nevertheless, came out. Legends have brought a lot of horror to our time.
The prototype of Perrault's tale was Baron Gilles de Ré, Marshal of France, associate of Jeanne d'Arc.
Gilles de Rais was accused of Satanism and witchcraft, murder and corruption of young children of both sexes, and alchemy. He was accused of human sacrifice, witchcraft, murder of innocent boys and girls, dismemberment of their bodies, sexual perversion, etc. death, and then, voluptuously kissing dead bodies, looking with lust at those who had the most beautiful heads and the most attractive limbs ... I took considerable pleasure in watching the separation of the heads of children from the body. Sometimes he made incisions in their necks to make them die slowly, which made him very aroused, and while they were bleeding to death, sometimes he could masturbate with them, and sometimes he did it after they died, while their bodies were still warm. " The bodies of the unfortunate were burned.
Duke Bluebeard, Gilles de Rais, was executed.
Kissing or drinking blood? A question that cruel judges did not dare to ask ...
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In that tower high and cramped
Queen Tamara lived:
As beautiful as a heavenly angel
Like a demon, insidious and evil.
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To the voice of an invisible peri
There was a warrior, a merchant and a shepherd ...
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Hot hands intertwined
Lips stuck to lips
And strange, wild sounds
Heard there all night.
© Lermontov.
Lermontov told everyone where the corpses of the participants in the night orgy had gone in the morning: into the deep gorge of Daryal. Queen Tamara is considered the most powerful of all Georgian rulers. Having chased away her legal husband, Prince Yuri Bogolyubsky, under the pretext of his drunkenness and homosexuality, she managed to curb the barbaric feudal country and hot eastern men. Myths and legends brought rumors to us about the numerous vices and virtues of the legendary queen. About numerous feasts and orgies, about enviable supersexuality and a tough disposition.
Tamara died as a young woman, as the chronicles testify, from an unknown serious and long illness.
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Russian aristocrat Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova, nee Ivanova, went down in history as a sophisticated sadist and serial killer of several dozen serfs subject to her. The court found Saltychikha "guilty without leniency" in thirty-eight murders and torture of courtyard people. Many suspicious death records have been identified. A twenty-year-old girl could go to work as a servant and die a few weeks later.
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Countess Erzsebet Bathory. More than a dozen films have been filmed about her and countless books have been written. The last dark film was released in 2009. It's called the Countess. According to the plot of the film, after the death of her husband, the countess has a young lover; to look younger herself, she begins to use the blood of young virgins who are killed for this purpose. In Karans's book, The War of the Sorcerers: The Curse of Odia, Erzsebet is described as a demonic woman who drinks the blood of young girls to preserve her youth and beauty.
Erzhebet was the niece of the famous Stefan Batory. Her husband gave her a castle in the Small Carpathians, where she gave birth to five children.
According to the materials of the investigation, the murders of young girls began during the life of her husband. A total of 650 girls from the surrounding villages were killed. The countess's nobility was so high that even the emperor did not dare to arrest Erzhebet Bathory, and she lived in her castle until the end of her life. And she died a quiet death.
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Carpathians, colorfully sung by Sacher-Masoch!
In the Carpathians, there was also the residence of the ruler of Wallachia, Vlad III Basarab. Also known as Vlad Tepes and Vlad Dracula. In which the Batory blood also flowed.
Vlad Tepes became famous for his successful struggle against the Turks, as well as for the fact that he pressed the Romanian boyars to the nail, like Ivan the Terrible. He received the nickname "Tepes" (Impaler) for his cruelty in reprisal against enemies and subjects whom he executed by impaling.
The name of Count Dracula has become a household name, synonymous with the word vampire.
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The theme of vampirism as an antidote was developed by Melissa de la Cruz, who wrote the Blue Blood series of novels. Blue blood is a physical trait of vampires.
If you were born with blue blood, you are destined to die from Wilson's disease. To prevent excess copper in the liver, it is necessary to constantly replenish hemoglobin reserves throughout life. Just as ethyl alcohol is an antidote to methyl alcohol, so red blood is an antidote to blue blood. Obviously, one cannot do with a single blood transfusion. You must drink blood all your life. The scarlet blood of mere mortals.
That is why terrible legends about vampires have come down to our time from time immemorial. Which are not in the Kamchadal and Khanty-Mansi collections of fairy tales. However, by the twenty-first century, the persons of blue blood, apparently, had completely assimilated, and the new Erzhebet Bathory, for sure, will not be born either in Europe or in America.
Willy-nilly, one has to talk about the benefits of social revolutions in the de-vampirization of the planet. It is also difficult to overestimate the personal contribution of Cromwell, Robespierre and Sverdlov in the eradication of this dark legacy of the past.
Workers of all countries, unite!
© Marx.
Octopuses are amazing cephalopods, but one of their most important mysteries is blue blood. The liquid that carries oxygen to the organs in animals is usually red, it can be lighter or darker, it all depends on the amount of hemoglobin. Blue blood in octopus and some other molluscs is an exception for terrestrial animals, only some species chose the blue hemocyanin pigment for oxygen delivery, instead of the usual hemoglobin.
For a long time, the question of why some cephalopods deviated from the usual pattern of hemopoiesis remained open. It turned out that blue blood in octopuses is a necessary factor for survival in cold waters. The temperature of Antarctic waters ranges from -2 - +2 degrees Celsius. In such cold conditions, transporting oxygen to the tissues is difficult. The copper-based protein hemocyanin is a more efficient means of delivering a vital oxidant to cells than hemoglobin at temperatures close to freezing.
Although a little trick with blue blood helps octopuses survive in colder places, warmer waters are much more favorable for them, most species are best adapted to 10 degrees Celsius. It is this temperature that is typical for the low latitudes of the Southern Ocean, but the ability to survive in less favorable conditions is a good bonus for the species.
In total, there are about 300 species of octopuses and they are all truly amazing creatures. They live in subtropical and tropical seas and oceans, from shallow waters to a depth of 200 m. They prefer rocky shores and are considered the smartest among all invertebrates. The more scientists learn about octopuses, the more they are admired.
1. The brain of an octopus is shaped like a donut.
2. The octopus does not have a single bone, this allows it to penetrate into a hole that is 4 times smaller than its own size.
3. Due to the large amount of copper, the blood of the octopus is blue.
4. The tentacles house more than 10,000 taste buds.
5. Octopuses have three hearts. One of them drives blue blood throughout the body, while the other two conduct it through the gills.
6. In case of danger, octopuses, like lizards, are able to discard tentacles, breaking them on their own.
7. Octopuses disguise themselves as their environment by changing their color. In a calm state, they are brown, when frightened, they turn white, and when angry they acquire a reddish tint.
8. To hide from enemies, octopuses throw out a cloud of ink, it not only reduces visibility, but also masks odors.
9. Octopuses breathe with gills, but they can also spend quite a long time outside the water.
10. Octopuses have rectangular pupils.
11. Octopuses always keep their dwelling clean, they "sweep" it with a stream of water from their funnel, and put the remains of food in a specially designated place nearby.
12. Octopuses are intelligent invertebrates that are trainable, remember their owners, distinguish shapes and have an amazing ability to unscrew cans.
13. Speaking of the unsurpassed intelligence of octopuses, one can recall the world-famous oracle-octopus Paul, who guessed the outcome of matches with the participation of the German football team. Actually, he lived in the Oberhausen Aquarium. Paul died, as oceanologists assume, a natural death. They even erected a monument to him in front of the entrance to the aquarium.
14. The personal life of marine life is not too happy. Males often become victims of females, and they, in turn, rarely survive after childbirth and doom the offspring to an orphan life.
15. There is only one species of octopus - the Pacific striped, which, unlike its fellows, is an exemplary family man. For several months he lives in a couple and during all this time he does something very similar to a kiss, putting his mouth in contact with his soul mate. After the appearance of offspring, the mother spends more than one month with the children, takes care of them and brings up them.
16. This same Pacific striped boasts an unusual hunting style. Before the attack, he lightly pats his victim "on the shoulder", as if warning, but this does not add to her chances of survival, so the purpose of the habit is still a mystery.
17. During reproduction, males use tentacles to pull out spermatophores "from the bosom" and carefully place them in the mantle cavity of the female.
18. On average, octopuses live 1-2 years, those who have lived up to 4 years are long-livers.
19. The smallest octopuses grow up to only 1 centimeter, and the largest up to 4 meters. The largest octopus was caught off the coast of the United States in 1945, its weight was 180 kg, and its length was as much as 8 meters.
20. Scientists managed to decipher the octopus genome. In the future, this will help to establish how they managed to evolve into such an intelligent creature and to understand the origin of amazing cognitive abilities. At the moment, it is known that the genome length of the octopus is 2.7 billion base pairs, it is almost equal to the length of the human genome, which has 3 billion base pairs.
Octopuses are amazingly complex creatures. And it's not just the unusual structure of their limbs. They know how to think ahead, communicate and use the means at hand when needed (fortunately, they have as many as eight "hands"). It remains to be seen how they do it. Scientists say the main reason is blue blood. But why is it that color?
Copper pipes
No, octopuses do not belong to the ancient noble family, there are no august persons among them, and they do not wear a crown on their heads. The fact is that they actually have blue blood, and the substance that is responsible for such an unusual color allows these creatures to better adapt to their environment.
This substance is called hemocyanin and is a protein with copper atoms, which carries oxygen through the body with the blood. Remember the color of copper sulfate? The blood of octopuses takes on the same shade: because it contains not red, but blue blood cells. By the way, humans and other land mammals also have a protein with similar functions. It is called hemoglobin, instead of copper it is rich in iron and gives the blood a red color.
But why does an octopus need blood with hemocyanin? The fact is that these creatures live on the seabed, where there is very little oxygen, and do not live long, so that even after millions of years of evolution, they could not migrate to more favorable conditions. Therefore, octopuses have three hearts, which constantly pump the body with oxygen-rich blood. This is what hemocyanin provides. Thanks to it, octopuses can survive in conditions that are deadly for many other marine inhabitants - from -2 ° C to high temperatures of underwater ocean sources.
Eight-legged brain
But that's not all. An octopus is essentially one large brain that needs to be fed with oxygen. Its 500 million neurons are distributed throughout the head and body. Of course, this does not compare with the 100 billion neurons in our brain, but octopuses do not qualify for the Nobel Prize, and their intelligence is quite enough for everyday needs.
For example, in Indonesia, octopuses harvest halves of coconut shells before a storm, and then use them as shelter: they climb into one half and cover with the other. And Jean Boal, a behavioral researcher at the University of Millersville who studies the inner life of octopuses, believes that octopuses are great at communicating and transmitting specific signals. When she tried to feed the experimental octopuses with rotten squid, one of them caught her eye and pointedly put the squid in the bin.
Still, there is some kind of aristocracy in blue blood!
