In Latin it’s called Thaumoctopus mimicus, but I’d call it The Master. It’s Meryl Streep in octopus form. There are ocean animals that can change shape, imitate plants, rocks, flora, and I’ve blogged about some of them. But this octopus is special. It seems to study other creatures and then imitate them, copying their moves and their bodies. It can do sea snakes, lion fish, flatfish, giant crabs, seashells, stingrays, jellyfish and weird beings that have no name, and maybe no earthly existence. Is it imagining? I don’t know, but no scientist has ever seen a shaggy sprinting bipedal crab — until our octopus decided to be one.

Click the banner above to go to the remainder of Robert Krulwich’s blog post on this wonder.  A bit more on the same after the jump (click the image to go to the original)…

Alert reader “digital cuttlefish” (who ought to know, being a cephalopod him/herself) has discovered this hand-drawn key, strangely written in English, published by blogger Randall Munroe, who posts at xkcd. I can see this chart being passed from boat to boat in Brunei Bay or maybe tacked up over the bar in Bukit Batu as a handy dandy guide for puzzled fishermen.