This article first appeared in Issue 8 of our free digital magazineCURIOUS .
It ’s no secret that the sea are home to some of the most foreign - comparable life on the planet , but did you eff that astrobiologists actually useoctopusesas a role model for what intelligence agency might look like on other satellite ? The rationality why link up into the peculiar general anatomy of these curious animal , and the fact that our last shared out root was a dirt ball some 350 million eld ago , meaning their intelligence service evolved in an submersed world totally separate from our own .
To plunk into the cognitive capabilities of octopus , and to explore their sentience – a conception that ’s become increasingly relevant in the subject field and welfare of cephalopods and crustaceans in recent years – a new project fund by the Wild Animal Initiative is investigatingwhat it ’s like to experience liveliness as an octopus . It ’s hope that the insights gleaned from the study will assist to inform sound statute law around the well-being of these beast , as well as teach us more about how these alien - same lifeforms perceive their environs .
And should it open door for a new outgrowth of virtual reality ( VR ) that enable you to explore submersed environments witheight brilliant arms ? Well , we would n’t complain .
To ascertain out more about the research , we spoke to two member of the devilfish sentience investigation team , Michaella Pereira Andrade and Tatiana Leite .
Tell us about your upcoming project funded by Wild Animal Initiative.
We are channel research on the personalities and worked up states of juvenilesOctopus insularis . Understanding the behavior and cognitive abilities of octopuses in the state of nature can bring home the bacon insight into their ecologic and evolutionary adaptation , as well as their sensory faculty and well-being voltage . For this , we developed dissimilar non - deadly test so we can study idle octopuses in the field .
What do we know so far about octopus intelligence?
octopus have complex queasy systems and are capable of advanced problem - solving and acquisition . They use tools , such asusing coconut shellsto hide from marauder and manipulate object to open jars . They can sail mazes and even work out puzzle . octopus are also known to exhibit behaviorssuch as play , which was once considered limited to mammals and birds .
They also own a decentralized nervous organization , with two - thirds of their neurons located in the arms . This intend that each arm can function independently , allowing them to perform complex labor without the indigence for centralised processing in the Einstein .
How is intelligence different from sentience?
Animal intelligence refer to an animal ’s cognitive abilities , such as percept , determination - qualification , and learning . On the other hand , sentience relate to an beast ’s ability to have subjective experiences , such as joy , botheration , fear , andother emotions . While these concepts may be connect , sentience pertains explicitly to an brute ’s ability to feel the Earth and is often regard in discussions of animal welfare .
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There is currently a lack of specific regulations and guidelines for thewelfare of dotty octopuses . This is primarily because octopuses are weigh to be " wild caught " animals , they are not subject to the same tier of oversight and regularisation as domesticated animal .
Do octopuses have personalities?
devilfish have been keep to show a spacious range of behaviors , some of which suggest that they may have personality . Studies have point that single octopuses have trenchant predilection for certain types of food , shelter , and social interactions , which suggest that they may have individual personality . Additionally , octopuses have been observed todisplay hostility , playfulness , and trouble - solving ability , which are all characteristics of animals with personality . However , more research is require to fully understand the nature of devilfish personality .
What is it about octopuses that has flagged them as models for studying alien life?
Octopuses have the largest nervous system and big genome among all invertebrate . They have about 33,000 genes ( more than humans , which have about 27,000 ) . Approximately 3,500 of them are unique to this chemical group of fauna .
An interesting feature regarding the evolution of devilfish genome is that they have develop the power to edit RNA to increase the repertoire of proteins develop and thus increase their adaptability to the environment in which they live . Only cephalopods do this . Instead of a DNA episode producing only one protein , with the power to recode by edit the RNA , this sequence can engender several proteins with different functions , increasing the beast ’s power to adapt to different situations . In other words , instead of genomic evolution occurring by mutant in DNA sequences , these sequence remain conserved , changing only the ability to cut the transmitted codes through RNA .
The squad hopes to return results on their enquiry into the lived experience of the oceans ’ aliens in the next class .
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