Hi there! I used to be really into SCP stuff... I kinda got overwhelmed but I like to poke through new entries when I can! I'm Petra!
shello shello!! it's super nice to meet you and yeah, i can struggle a lot with reading some of the longer stuff on there myself!
ahhh, more in math and physics myself hehe!! i find quantum physics super finteresting but i don't know a shoal lot yet!
Aaaah, I was going to break the ice with weird marine biology facts! I'm an undergrad biology student, minoring in forensics. Forensics is what I want to go into, I think, but I just like... biology in general. Even if I'm bad at ochem!
I feel that!! college is all right, though, just try not to overwhelm yourself with stuff! anyway, it's one am here, so I'm gonna hit the hay. night!!
i'd still love to hear fishy facts oh gosh!!!!! and that sounds super exciting, i'm shore you'll do well!
Well then, did you know that cephalopods (excepting nautiluses, I'll get to that) can change not only the color of their skin, but the texture? They've got special structures under the skin they can flex and change around to create different texture impressions! So they can look like a rock or coral, not just smooth. Now, for how they change the color of their skin, that's a mixture of chromatophores and iridiophores. Chromatophores are skin cells that contain colored pigments, and iridiophores contain light reflective materials. Like tiny mirrors in the skin, if that makes sense? Now, they can contract or expand these cells at will! So if they need to look blue, they'd expand the blue cells and contract the other cells to get the shade they needed! Same with how they use iridiophores to get the right shine and reflectiveness. But the really crazy thing about this? They're colorblind.
oh gosh!!! i love them! i didn't know aboat the texture changing at all, i wonder if it's ever been tried to replicate in technology! :0
Probably! People try to replicate a lot of stuff from nature for tech, it can be super tricky but also worthwhile, and it gives us a starting point. Anyway, the nautilus doesn't have the color-shifting abilities that make other cephalopods famous. They never evolved to drop their shells, so they don't need it! Besides, it'd be pretty hard to look like a plant when you're dragging around what it essentially an unarmed armored tank. :P
hehe, i guess so oh gosh!!! i guess that'd mean they all developed cephalopod-like features seperately rather than evolving from one early species with all the traits which is interesting!! :0
I'm actually not sure what the current estimate of their evolutionary tree is! I do know nautiluses (??? how do you plural) are considered closest to the 'ancestral state' because of their shells, but of course they're not 'less evolved' than other cephalopods.
Probably! Did you know cuttlefish will use their color-changing to project rapidly flashing 'hypnotic' patterns to stun prey? All glory to the hypno'fish'.
