This book is the incredible evolutionary journey of the cephalopods, which began as inconspicuous molluscs who would later abandon their shells to rise above the ocean floor, searching for prey and acquiring the greater intelligence needed to do so. And they took this journey quite independently from the route that mammals and birds would later take. The octopus “is probably the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien”, the author writes. The fact that they have eight legs, three hearts, and blue-green blood allies them more with The Simpsons’ gloopy extra-terrestrials than anything earthly. They’re very clever: one story in the book is of an octopus at the University of Otago in New Zealand that learned to turn off lights by squirting water at the bulbs; brightness annoys an octopus. Cephalopods are not only aware of their environment; they seek to manipulate it. This is a fascinating and very well written book by a philosopher of science who also happens to be a keen scuba diver – a keen insight into one our most remarkable animal relatives.
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