All articles tagged with #squids
A study published in Science reveals that 100 million years ago, squids were abundant and dominated the oceans as apex predators, challenging previous beliefs about their evolutionary timeline and highlighting their significant role in ancient marine ecosystems through advanced digital fossil analysis.
Octopuses and squids have taste sensors in their suckers, but they are attuned to different flavors. Octopuses can detect materials that aren't very soluble in water, like grease and oil, while squids sense bitter flavors. Researchers found that the two different chemotactile receptors had emerged after squids and octopuses diverged, playing a significant role in driving their different hunting strategies. The receptors in octopus suckers are chemotactile receptors, which combine the senses of taste and touch, and are extremely similar to receptors found in humans.
Octopuses and squids use their suckers to taste surfaces and grapple with their prey simultaneously. Two studies published in Nature describe how these animals 'taste by touching' and how evolution has equipped them with the perfect sensory ability for their lifestyles. The receptors that stud the animals' suckers transmit information that enables the creature to taste chemicals on a surface independently from those floating in the water. Molecular biologists have found that the octopus receptors tend to bind to 'greasy' molecules that don't dissolve in water, suggesting that they are optimized for detecting chemicals on surfaces such as a fish's skin, the sea floor, or the octopus's own eggs.
Scientists have engineered human cells to replicate the camouflage ability of squids. The researchers focused on leucophores, skin cells that facilitate structural coloration through proteins called reflectins. By introducing reflectin-forming genes from squids into human cells and adding salt to the media of the cell cultures, the reflectin in the human cells began to clump together into larger nanoparticles, allowing them to tune the transparency by controlling the amount of salt. The goal is to better image squid skin cells, which could lead to more squid-inspired innovations like liquid windows.