All Octopuses are venomous...

[mspear]

Interesting headline and story. I'm new to scuba and am learning about marine life as well so please forgive me if this was obvious to you all, but I thought it was an interesting read.

All Octopuses Are Venomous (http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090416/sc_livescience/alloctopusesarevenomous)

[Ferg822]

Wow that's interesting. I always knew the blue-rings were venemous but nothing else, especially squid. Thanks mspear.

[mrfixitchapman]

My octopus is yellow. I should be okay, I think.

DC

[vladimir]

Pretty interesting little article, thanks. I have read a little on the subject of venoms, and I was struck by this sentence:

The team will now work on understanding why very different types of venomous animals seem to consistently settle on the similar venom protein composition, and which physical or chemical properties make them predisposed to be useful as toxin.

I guess they are talking about tetrodotoxin, which seems to turn up in a vast array of marine venoms. Has it evolved independently in all these organisms? Or have they somehow borrowed from each other? You'd think there'd be some evolutionary advantage in using different toxins, since potential victims are probably busy evolving immunities, and, indeed, at least some of them have a kitchen sink approach, wielding a smorgasbord of toxins in their venom. Anyway, I find the natural biochemical warfare fascinating.

[rentdn]

My octopus is yellow. I should be okay, I think.

DC

You keep octopus as a pet ???

[drbill]

I was surprised at this. To my knowledge it is not true (and I have checked with a cephalopod expert on this). Of course it may depend on how you define venomous... one critter's poison is another's mild irritant. Of course what is venomous to some prey species may be totally harmless to other species and humans.

[gcbryan]

I was surprised at this. To my knowledge it is not true (and I have checked with a cephalopod expert on this). Of course it may depend on how you define venomous... one critter's poison is another's mild irritant. Of course what is venomous to some prey species may be totally harmless to other species and humans.

My first reaction was what's new but I guess it's as you say how you define venomous. They all use their beak to make a hole as well as using their radula and secrete a "substance" that breaks down muscle tissue and paralyzes I believe. That's venomous to me.

[drbill]

To me it depends... is it "venomous" if it doesn't affect humans? Most uses of words like venomous or toxic often relate directly to humans rather than to other species. Interesting question. I certainly don't worry about octopus that are non-toxic to humans. The clams probably worry a lot.

[nitrogenMARCosis]

i think the only venomous octopus is the blue ring

[Chris Tauzin]

It is amazing the things they are finding out and all the un-knowns of the other world we live in underwater as divers. I am always in ah of the life of even the smallest of creatures under there and think of what a day to day life must be to them - so unlike ours here on land.

[drbill]

We don't consider a large number of critters venomous if their toxins only affect their prey or predators and not humans. Of course for the poor prey species, it is deadly!

[XxLongimanuSxX]

i think the only venomous octopus is the blue ring me too!!!

[JohnQPS122]

The link the in the OP is dead, but this link:

All Octopuses Are Venomous - US News and World Report (http://www.usnews.com/articles/science/plants-animals/2009/04/15/all-octopuses-are-venomous.html)

leads to an article that says, "While the blue-ringed octopus species remain the only group that are dangerous to humans, the other species have been quietly using their venom for predation, such as paralyzing a clam into opening its shell."

[siikik]

I thought the plural was octopi... then I found out that the English language has degraded enough to include octopuses as well. Why do I bother?

Venomous does not always mean poisonous and the venom's effect is relative between the donor and recipient species.


Ken

[archman]

When this article came out, I used it in a discussion as an example of bizarre science news reporting. We've been teaching "all cephalopods are venomous" in college for over 10 years. There were no exceptions to this argument in any text I've recently read. Perhaps we were only 99% sure before?

[WestoftheSun]

I thought the plural was octopi... then I found out that the English language has degraded enough to include octopuses as well. Why do I bother?

Venomous does not always mean poisonous and the venom's effect is relative between the donor and recipient species.


Ken

The true plural is octopodes. This is being rather pedantic though. Octopi is wrong, but quite commonly used. Octopuses is also wrong but is the most commonly used.