FAQ
A contribution of The Cephalopod Page
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Hi James, Sorry to disturb you. I was wondering if I could use the picture of the baby bathy. My 8 year old daughter came home from school today and told me she had to look up octopus on the web and we ran across your site. It has proven to be very informative and the pictures were great. My daughter asked if we could print a picture to bring in to her class, so here I am asking if it is OK? The other question I have is this: Her teacher wanted them to find out why octopuses string and hang their eggs from their lair? I couldn't find that information any where. Maybe I didn't look hard enough, but if you could furnish us with that information, that also would be greatly appreciated. Kathy |
| Answer: |
| It is fine for your daughter to use the picture for her presentation. Tell your daughter that I wish her luck with her presentation and commend her choice in subjects. The egg question is a bit tricky to answer. First of all, some octopuses actually carry their eggs around with them! Others (Argonauts) make an egg case to lay them in. However most familiar octopuses attach their eggs to a hard substrate in their lair. Some octopuses like Bathypolypus arcticus and Octopus joubini attach their eggs one at a time. Other octopuses actually braid their eggs and hang festoons of them. My hypothesis is that the larger octopuses need to put their eggs in strings/festoons as otherwise that amount of eggs would cover more surface area than the mother could protect. Dr. James Wood |