molluscs
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The Most Dazzling Ocean Photos of the Year
The oceans remain one of the most unexplored places on the planet. But every once in a while, we get a glimpse of the beauty and terror they contain. This month, the Underwater Photography Guide announced the latest winners of its Ocean Art Contest, filled with plenty of these fascinating peeks under the water’s surface.
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Rare Videos Show Captive Squid Changing Colour to Hide in Plain Sight
A team of scientists in Japan captured video of squid camouflaging with their surroundings, much like octopuses and cuttlefish do. While squid in the wild are known to change colour, the scientists set up an experiment to confirm this camouflage ability in a laboratory.
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See the Fractal-Like Shells of Ammonites Like Never Before
Ammonites are a tale of two textures. The prehistoric cephalopods were composed of fleshy soft tissue (the living bit of the animals) and hard external shells, which, according to a paper published this week in Scientific Reports, may have helped the animals control their buoyancy.
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These Slugs Cut Off Their Own Heads When They Want a New Body
Looking like opened pea pods with a lustrous sheen, the sea slugs Elysia cf. marginata and Elysia atroviridis aren’t your average gastropods. First off, they’re members of sacoglossa, a clade of slugs known for taking the algae from marine plants and integrating the chloroplasts from that algae into their own cells, allowing them to get…