The post-80s generation should still have an impression of Paul the Octopus more than ten years ago. It is said that this German octopus can accurately predict the outcome of a football team's match. As a result, it was quite well-known between 2008 and 2010.
In fact, for years, people have been amazed at the high intelligence of octopuses — studies say they are as intelligent as children as young as six or seven years old.
(Paul the Octopus, died of natural causes in 2010)
At the same time, the octopus is completely different from the unique shape of marine fish, which also makes it historically a giant sea monster capable of overturning ships in the legends of the Nordic region.
There are still quite a few opinions, even that octopuses are an alien species. So, how did all this about the octopus itself evolve?
(Paul the Octopus's prediction for the year)
High IQ stems from jumping genes
As an invertebrate with a complex brain, it has been the object of attention and research in the biological community for many years. A 2022 study showed that the cognitive complexity and neural makeup of the octopus brain appear to be similar to the molecules of the human brain.
Similar traits were discovered by biologists at the beginning of the 21st century when they were sequencing human genes. The genes in the human body, transposon sequences, make up at least 45% of the genome. These DNA sequences are called "skipping genes".
Its biggest feature is that it can be "copied and pasted" and can move around various loci in the genome at will. This allows the gene sequences to be easily replicated and mixed.
New research has found that these genes are not only found in the human brain, but also in the brain of octopuses. In the opinion of scientific researchers, octopuses with transposon mechanism genes will have intelligence beyond other animals.
From a human perspective, this type of genome is active in the hippocampus region of the brain, which is an important Xi and cognitive structure of humans, and the existence of a transposon genome is closely related to memory and cognition.
Now, biologists have also discovered this genome in the brain of octopuses. This suggests that octopuses' ability to have cognition and a strong memory is the result of their functioning.
Biologists have further discovered that these substances appear to be more active in the octopus's brain than in the human brain, not just for the specific function of copying and pasting.
The Xi region of the human brain is the hippocampus, and a similar area of the octopus brain is the vertical lobe. Biologists believe that all of the octopus' Xi and cognition are constructed in this area.
It is worth mentioning that when one of the researchers, biologist Giovanna Ponte, looked under the microscope and directly found a strong signal of activity from this type of substance. The researcher jumped into the chair excitedly.
In the view of biologists, the similarity between octopuses and humans is a kind of convergent evolution, and similar similarities can exist in two completely different species, but they develop independently in evolution.
For example, human consciousness can only exist in the brain, but the consciousness of an octopus can exist on every tentacle.
Each tentacle has its own consciousness
Previous studies have found that octopus brain cells are between 100 million and 500 million, although the exact number is still controversial. However, biologists agree on the area of its distribution.
Unlike other creatures, where brain cells are concentrated in the brain, about half of the brain cells of an octopus are distributed on the tentacles. By comparison, we humans have more than 85 billion neurons, all of which are located within the skull.
The octopus itself is a unique tactile system, with about 40 million tactile receptors throughout its body, many of which are distributed around the edge of the suction cup.
When human beings touch external objects with their hands or bodies, they can only feel the existence of physical objects. Octopuses, on the other hand, use their tentacles to touch objects around them, and not only can they perceive existence, but their tactile system also has the ability to taste and smell. That is, an octopus only needs to "touch" an object with its tentacles to know what it tastes like.
It's a bit like our human tongue, except that the octopus's "tongue" grows on the outside and there are several. This super sensitive tactile system, even consciousness and thinking, and the consciousness of each tentacle of the octopus seems to be independent.
Biologists have found in experiments that each tentacle of an octopus can react differently. For example, one tentacle can grab something you like, and for something you don't like, its other tentacle can push it away.
These different tentacles seem to be acting on their own, with their own consciousness. However, for an organic octopus, it is not worried that these tentacles will move indiscriminately.
During the activity, the tentacles can avoid the suction cups at will, indicating that the octopus will not mess with itself because of its own suction cups.
But again, if an octopus is interested in eating another octopus, its tentacles will not avoid the other's suckers.
Even, if one of the tentacles of the octopus is cut off, the octopus can easily tell whether the severed tentacles belong to its own or another octopus.
In addition, the octopus is able to avoid tentacles, and at the same time, when eating the same kind, it can grab other tentacles regardless of the rules of avoidance, which indicates that the octopus is self-aware.
In this way, the octopus perceives the tentacles differently, and each tentacle can act on its own. In normal times, octopuses can obtain various information about the outside world through different tentacles. And once there is some kind of emergency, all of its tentacles seem to follow the unified instructions of the brain to act.
Just like the human nervous system, there is a similar pattern, which is to give the body the ability to act on its own in a necessary state. For example, if you use fire to burn someone's finger, even if you don't let him see it, or even let him feel that the fire is approaching you, as long as you touch the fire in your hand, your hand will instinctively retract.
That's where the nervous system comes into play. And the tentacles of the octopus seem to be more complicated than the set of rules in humans. Compared to the limbs controlled by the human nervous system, which can only reflexively avoid damage, the tentacles of the octopus can also follow the body, easily perform various complex disguises, and integrate themselves into the surrounding environment.
In addition to its powerful tentacles, the octopus also has great visual ability, and it can easily remember it by looking at the real thing, indicating that its cognitive and memory abilities are first-class.
Can remember a person for months
An octopus named Truman lived in the aquarium, during which a female college student volunteer often came to work at the aquarium. Truman was fond of playing pranks with the schoolgirl.
As soon as the schoolgirl approached the tank, Truman sprayed water at her with a rainbow pipe that reached into the tank. And so on and so forth, and so often.
Later, the schoolgirls stopped for months without going to the aquarium, and Truman did not spray water on the others. Later, when the schoolgirl came to the aquarium again, the first time she saw Truman, she was sprayed with water from him.
This shows that Truman not only remembered the girl, but also retained her memory after a few months. However, the peculiarity is not in the length of memory, but in the fact that the octopus does not live long, but why it has a super long memory.
Other animals, such as elephants, live for decades like humans, so it is not a big deal to have a super memory.
However, octopuses only have a few years to live, such as Paul, the octopus, who was able to predict the winners and losers of football teams more than a decade ago, died in 2010. The short lifespan and long-term memory are what surprise biologists.
Have personality and Xi ability
The octopus is a great Xi, and it can even learn and use various tools with ease. Some people often see octopuses in the wild environment, using stones as gates to block the entrance to their homes.
There are even some who have discovered that octopuses use a variety of objects as cover. An empty coconut shell, for example, can be used to make the perfect shelter.
As for octopuses bred in captivity, their personalities are even more different. Likes to spoof, but also interactive and even aggressive.
Even an octopus can observe the performance of its own kind, and then learn and remember a certain ability, even after a long period of time.
Because of these characteristics, many people feel that fortunately, the octopus has a short lifespan, otherwise the position of the overlord of the sea is definitely it.
It is precisely this point that still makes people feel puzzling. After all, the octopus is an invertebrate, and it is not a primate, and the intelligence and consciousness it exhibits seem to be completely out of proportion to its body structure.
So to this day, how the high IQ of the octopus evolved, the relevant research and inference have not stopped.
Everything is a survival strategy
As invertebrates, octopuses have both natural predators and competitors with completely different body structures. Especially with a large number of competitors, the octopus must be stronger if it wants to compete with them for food.
Studies have found that in ancient times, whether it was an octopus or other fish, their common natural enemy was ichthyosaurs. Faced with a life-and-death decision, octopuses also have a tendency to go to shallow waters or even land in the process of evolution.
However, in the later evolution, the octopus did not choose to leave the sea, but chose to move and survive in the deep sea. Later, the octopus lived in both shallow and deep seas.
If this inference is correct, if the octopus in ancient times had really landed and evolved, it might have been able to form intelligent animals that were completely different from humans.
What is clear is that the evolution of the octopus has been in the sea and did not end up at the point of landing. So in the end, it was the primates that gradually became the masters of the world in evolution.
The octopus, on the other hand, has evolved to become more and more intelligent, but it has been suppressed by the water and our human ancestors. In the end, it is different from other animals' superpowers, and it can only be simply expressed in survival.
epilogue
Evolution is a long time, but evolutionary selection happens all the time. The various abilities possessed by octopuses are both the product of evolution and self-selection under the pressure of the environment.
Therefore, through the evolution of the octopus, we can see the various difficulties that human ancestors have gone through along the evolution. After all, even a small move can interfere with the final direction of evolution.
If our ancestors hadn't been lucky or had made a wrong choice, we might have been locked up in an aquarium and become an ornament of some kind of intelligent creature.
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"Where does the octopus's high IQ come from?" Reference news July 27, 2022