Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2018 November 7

= November 7 =

(Re)Inventing the wheel
Some time ago I watched a short video on an octopus travelling slowly across the bottom of some maritime region. I was rather stunned to realise that it used some of its tentacles to create ad hoc / temporary "wheels" for locomotion. Two (?) tentacles were "rolled up" into a sort of helical structure (like a short cork screw) and the animal then "unrolled" these two wheels between head and substrate whilst preparing more tentacles for locomotion. Unfortunately, I missed to save a reference. I would be curious to learn if octopuses habitually use this method of "driving" on the bottom of some maritime habitat or if this specific individual has just done a quantum leap to invent the wheel. Thank you for any help! --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 11:06, 7 November 2018 (UTC)


 * Nature "invented" the wheel long before that. See:
 * Flagellum
 * Rotating locomotion in living systems
 * --Guy Macon (talk) 05:39, 8 November 2018 (UTC)


 * I've seen similar footage. Good stuff. Octopi are pretty intelligent as invertebrates go. It's not surprising they have figured out how to use their tentacles in various ways. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 01:31, 9 November 2018 (UTC)


 * [ https://xkcd.com/928/ ] --Guy Macon (talk) 01:45, 9 November 2018 (UTC)