A Wisdom Archive on muscular hydrostat

In addition to eating and human vocalization, the human tongue has many secondary uses. These include certain forms of kissing known as "tongue kissing" or sometimes "french kissing" in which the tongue plays a primary role. Generally, use of the tongue (such as licking), or interaction between tongues, appears to be a common gesture of affection, not just in humans but throughout the animal kingdom, and particularly in mammals. The tongue is also has a distinct use in both male and female forms of oral sex, and is typically used to a ...

Read more here: » Tongue: Encyclopedia II - Tongue - Secondary Uses

Though octopuses can be hard to keep in captivity, some people keep them as pets. Octopuses often escape even from supposedly secure tanks, due to their intelligence and problem solving skills. The variation in size and life span among octopus species makes it difficult to know how long a new specimen can naturally be expected to live. That is, a small octopus may be just born or may be an adult, depending on the species. By selecting a well-known species, such as the California Two-spot Octopus, one can choose a small octopus (around the size of a tennis ball) and be confident that ...

Read more here: » Octopus: Encyclopedia II - Octopus - Miscellaneous

Octopuses are highly intelligent, probably the most intelligent of any of the invertebrates, with their intelligence supposedly comparable to that of the average housecat. Maze and problem-solving experiments show that they have both short- and long-term memory, although their short lifespans limit the amount they can ultimately learn. An octopus has a highly complex nervous system, only part of which is localized in its brain. Two-thirds of an octopus's neurons are found in the nerve cords of its arms, which have a remarkable amount ...

Read more here: » Octopus: Encyclopedia II - Octopus - Intelligence

Octopuses move about by crawling or swimming. Their main means of slow travel is crawling, with some swimming. Their only means of fast travel is swimming. They crawl by walking on their arms, usually on many at once, on solid surfaces, while supported in water. In 2005 it was reported that some octopuses can walk on two arms on a solid surface, while at the same time imitating a coconut or a clump of seaweed.[2] They swim by expelling a jet of water from a contractile mantle ...

Read more here: » Octopus: Encyclopedia II - Octopus - Locomotion

Octopuses have keen eyesight. Although their slit-shaped pupils might be expected to afflict them with astigmatism, it appears that this is not a problem in the light levels in which an octopus typically hunts. Surprisingly, they do not appear to have color vision, although they can distinguish the polarization of light. Attached to the brain are two special organs, called statocysts, that allow the octopus to sense the orientation of its body relative to horizontal. An autonomic response keeps the octopus's eyes oriented so that ...

Read more here: » Octopus: Encyclopedia II - Octopus - Sensation

The phylum mollusca includes many species with muscular hydrostats in the form of tentacles and arms: octopuses do not have tentacles, they have arms. Tentacles are longer than arms and usually have suckers at their tips only. Squids and cuttlefish have eight arms like octopuses, and also two tentacles, which is one good way to distinguish squids from octopuses. Cnidarians, which include among others the jellyfishes, are another phylum with many tentaculated specimens. Cnidarians often have huge numbers of cnidocytes on their tentacles. Cnidocytes are cells containing a coiled thread-like structure called ...

Read more here: » Tentacle: Encyclopedia II - Tentacle - Tentacles in marine animals

• Cephalopod - Evolution
• Cephalopod - Classification

Read more here: » Cephalopod: Encyclopedia - Cephalopod

14 in two suborders, see text. The octopus is a cephalopod of the order Octopoda that inhabits many diverse regions of the ocean, especially coral reefs. The term may also refer to only those creatures in the genus Octopus. In the larger sense, there are 289 different octopus species, which is over one-third the total number of cephalopod species. Octopuses are characterized by their eight arms, usually with sucker cups on them. These arms are a type of muscular hydrostat. Unlike most other cephalopods, the ... Including:

• Octopus - Intelligence
• Octopus - Sensation
• Octopus - Locomotion
• Octopus - Miscellaneous
• Octopus - Plural
• Octopus - Classification

Read more here: » Octopus: Encyclopedia - Octopus

In anatomy, the arm is the upper limb of a bipedal mammal, specifically the segment between the shoulder and the elbow. Arm can also refer to any analogous structure, such as one of the paired forelimbs of a quadruped, or any muscular hydrostat similar to a tentacle, as seen on some cephalopods, such as octopuses. The term arm also refers to the entire upper limb in an organism. Anatomically, the segment between the elbow and wrist is properly called the forearm. In primates the arms are richly adapted for ... Including:

• Arm - Anatomy of the human arm
• Arm - Bony structure and joints
• Arm - Osteofascial compartments
• Arm - Cubital fossa
• Arm - Nervous supply
• Arm - Blood supply and venous drainage

Read more here: » Arm: Encyclopedia - Arm

Squids are the large, diverse group of marine cephalopods popular as food in cuisines as widely separated as Korean and Italian. In fish markets and restaurants in English-speaking countries, it is often known by the name calamari, from the Greek-Italian word for these animals. Squids are members of the class Cephalopoda, subclass Coleoidea, order Teuthida, of which there are two major suborders, Myopsina and Oegopsina (including the giant squids like Architeuthis dux). Teuthida is the largest of the cephalopod orders, edging out the octopuses (order Octopoda) for total number of sp ... Including:

• Squid - Classification

Read more here: » Squid: Encyclopedia - Squid

A worm is an elongated soft-bodied invertebrate animal. The most famous is the earthworm, a member of phylum Annelida, but there are hundreds of thousands of different species that live in a wide variety of habitats other than soil. Originally, the word referred to any creeping or a crawling animal of any kind or size, such as a serpent, caterpillar, snail, or the like. Later this definition was narrowed to the modern definition which still includes several different animal groups. Major phyla include: Acanthocepha ...

Read more here: » Worm: Encyclopedia - Worm

The tongue is the large bundle of muscles on the floor of the mouth that manipulates food for chewing and swallowing. It is one of the organs of taste. Much of the surface of the tongue is covered in taste buds. The tongue assists in forming the sounds of speech. The word tongue can be used as a synonym for language, e.g., as in the phrase mother tongue. It is also examined and observed diagnostically in traditional Chinese medicine. The tongue is made mainly of skeletal muscle and attached to the hyoid bone, mandible an ... Including:

• Tongue - Intrinsic muscles of the tongue
• Tongue - White tongue
• Tongue - Secondary Uses
• Tongue - Tongue Rolling
• Tongue - As a Food

Read more here: » Tongue: Encyclopedia - Tongue