Who knew that there was such a thing as a blanket octopus with a self-defense mechanism unlike any other? Ellen Prager did and she wrote about the unusual blanket octopus and many other highly unusual facts about natural marine life in her new book, Sex, Drugs and Sea Slime. Along with the unbelievable blanket octopus, Prager expounds on fascinating natural history of jawfish who incubate their eggs in their mouth, octopi who self-amputate their sexy arms and parrotfish that wrap themselves in a blanket of snot.
All these natural facts of marine life are anecdotes that we reef keepers take for granted on a regular basis but they really are very strange if you step back to think about it. Although we haven’t read it yet, something tells us that Prager’s book about these marine life facts will have a refreshing unjaded point of view that we would expect from a non-aquarist. Posted below is a video of the blanket octopus unfurling its unbelievably long flap of skin in self defense and if you are interested, there is an excerpt of Prager’s book available to preview online.
[Wired]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpME-jNSC2U[/youtube]
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
