News Note from Nestines taken, "Scientists declare octopi life from another world"

[Qonundrum]

https://boingboing.net/2018/05/15/scientists-declare-octopi-as-l.html

Evidence of the octopus evolution show it would have happened too quickly to have begun here on Earth. Published in the Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology Journal, 33 scientists have declared the invertebrate sea-dweller an alien whose eggs landed from space.

We've all seen how the Nestine consciousness travels, bringing down swarms of spheres that get put into a chamber that ultimately release what is otherwise an 8' long octopus. But thinking of "The Twin Dilemma", Mestor's eggs were hard enough to prevent the innards from being fried by the heat generated during descent as well... and Mestor's slugs don't need automatons to create a gestation chamber in hopes the spheres land on a populated planet with technology already capable to make what it needs... then again, Mestor could control others' minds with his, create embolisms, and even open TARDIS doors remotely, but that doesn't mean the hatching fritters need to land on a planet teeming with intelligent life that has made technology for it to use. If a single slug egg landed on Endor, say bye-bye to all the trees and those tasty little Ewoks along with it.

Thankfully, here on Earth, the alien invasion didn't succeed as planned?

 

[Lonemagpie]

No, one group has written one paper to be peer reviewed, in which they've declared "this shit is weird, and one of many possible reasons could be alien microbes (panspermia)" - far from an official declaration of octopi and squid being alien invaders.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Indeed. When the highest caliber of media that's reporting the study are the Daily Express and the Daily Mail (per Google News), you know something is, pardon the expression, fishy.

 

[Christopher]

I did some looking, and apparently this isn't the first time the anomalies in octopus genomes have been noted. However, what I read seemed to say they were anomalous relative to other cephalopods, anomalously similar to genes found in vertebrates, suggesting that they emerged through convergent evolution rather than similarity to related species.

https://evolutionnews.org/2015/08/the_octopus_gen/

Also, the plural is octopuses or octopus. It's of Greek origin, not Latin, so the -i suffix is incorrect; the Greek form of the plural would be octopodes.

 

[Mr Awe]

However, what I read seemed to say they were anomalous relative to other cephalopods,

Nope, different from all other animals--at least according to Dr. Ragsdale. Although, that doesn't mean it is "alien."

“The octopus appears to be utterly different from all other animals, even other molluscs, with its eight prehensile arms, its large brain and its clever problem-solving abilities,” said US researcher Dr Clifton Ragsdale, from the University of Chicago.

Analysis of 12 different tissues revealed hundreds of octopus-specific genes found in no other animal, many of them highly active in structures such as the brain, skin and suckers.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Also, the plural is octopuses or octopus. It's of Greek origin, not Latin, so the -i suffix is incorrect; the Greek form of the plural would be octopodes.

At the risk of being even more pedantic, Merriam-Webster says octopi is acceptable.

 

[Christopher]

At the risk of being even more pedantic, Merriam-Webster says octopi is acceptable.

Dictionaries aren't value judgments, just records of common or noteworthy usage. Enough people use that form that it warrants documenting. It's still not the preferred form, and it's etymologically erroneous.

Besides, octopus are really smart and aggressive and I don't want to make them mad by getting their name wrong.

 

[Jinn]

Besides, octopus are really smart and aggressive and I don't want to make them mad by getting their name wrong.

Don't worry, they'll attack Germany first. One of the German words for octopus is "Tintenfisch", which literally means "inkfish". I'm sure such an error would be of more import than just getting the ending wrong.

Anyway, I'll be permanently moving to wherever there is no water now.