A video taken by researchers in a New York City lab shows an octopus named Costello behaving “strangely” shortly after waking up.
Researcher Eric Angel Ramos told McClatchy News that Costello may have just woken up from a bad dream.
Ramos, speaking to The McClatchy News from Panama, was studying octopuses at Rockefeller University in New York City. He said he saw him there.
“Costello was doing something really weird. He was grabbing this PVC pipe and he looked like he was in pain or attacking something,” he said. “I went to see the video because I really wondered what was going on.”
The researchers installed surveillance cameras in the lab, recording them 24 hours a day, so they rewound the tapes to a few minutes before entering the lab, Ramos said.
The video showed Costello, named after one of the film’s “heptapods,” or octopus-like alien creatures. arrival, Even though there are no predators around, they wake up from sleep and start acting defensively, Ramos said.
“We could see him doing basically a series of things that an octopus does when they fight for their lives in this few minute episode,” he said. rice field. “It was a really intense exchange.”
Ramos said the video is evidence that Costello may have just woken up from a nightmare.
Costello was a wild octopus before he was brought to the lab, and was amputated, presumably due to a predator attack. Ramos said the trauma from the attack may have haunted him in his dreams.
“I don’t think it’s too far-fetched to think that he was really traumatized by traumatic events and acted out some of these things in his sleep,” he said. “It’s still speculation, but it’s one of the most unlikely speculations.”
Ramos and colleagues said they were unable to find evidence that this type of behavior was recorded by other researchers. But that doesn’t mean the behavior itself is unusual. That’s probably because octopuses haven’t been studied as much, he said, especially in labs where octopuses are recorded by cameras 24/7.
Scientists already know that octopuses are highly intelligent animals, he says. They are only one and a half years old, but they have learned new skills and are highly capable of solving problems, he said.
Ramos said he hopes this will lead to more research into animals and how they sleep. But for the non-scientist, this can show that we humans aren’t all that different from those of the animal kingdom.
“This observation should prompt further research into how animals came together on a path similar to ours, and what it means to be a sentient, intelligent, conscious and complex animal. I think you probably need to shake your mind about ,” he said. “What we think is special may not be special because we are.”
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