Some scientists say octopuses are really space aliens.

[MoonRiver]

They do look like they could be aliens from outer space, but did octopuses really arrive on Earth millions of years ago via meteors? That’s the conclusion of a peer-reviewed study that was published recently in a scientific journal.

The 33 international scientists who conducted the study were looking for an explanation for the Cambrian explosion, which occurred about 540 million years ago and led to the creation of many animals that are still around today. The study, which appeared in the March 2018 issue of Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, concludes that the explosion was triggered by a meteor.

That’s where the study takes a rather bizarre turn. The scientists have a couple of theories about that meteor. It may have been carrying fertilized octopus eggs, or it may have carried alien viruses that infected squid, making them evolve pretty quickly into octopuses.

https://www.care2.com/causes/some-scientists-say-octopuses-are-really-space-aliens.html

[jcgoldie]

1. We may need an underwater wall

Make the whales pay for it.

[MoonRiver]

2. Good one! But any whale could outsmart Idiot!

[FSogol]

9. DUzy!

[malaise]

10. A high quiality DUzy

[oberliner]

32. That was pretty funny

[Stinky The Clown]

35. HA!! Kudos upon you for that one. Brilliant!

[Adrahil]

3. Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

[Ferrets are Cool]

4. +1

[Glorfindel]

8. That is not dead which can eternal lie.

And with strange aeons, even death may die.

[hlthe2b]

5. well, every since I learned how intelligent they are, I absolutely CAN NOT eat octopus

The fact that the one time I did I nearly dislocated my jaw has nothing to do with it.


Seriously, though, they are supposedly amazingly intelligent and capable of "so-called" higher learning from experiments.

[MoonRiver]

7. I've heard about their intelligence.

But whales and dolphins are amazingly intelligent, on a par with humans, and some sicko countries kill and eat them.

[Hortensis]

12. Vestigial intelligence originating from outer space? NOT a good sign.

If it were true.

We're not finding ANY signs of intelligent life from billions of galaxies, and if it's out there we should have by now.

One theory is that yes, it has developed elsewhere, but then where are the messages and other signs we should be finding? A theory to explain the silence and emptiness is that all advanced civilizations hit a development wall and in some way were destroyed at that point. This would happen around the point of development we have reached now. We are sending signals out there.

Another theory is that somehow we are the first, and perhaps only, even though we now know that many millions of older solar systems with life-supporting planets are out there.

[ProfessorGAC]

14. You Sure About "Should Have By Now"

If a civilization were 75,000 years ahead of earth, then they would have been broadcasting detectable signals 75,100 years ago.

If we were at opposite ends of the Milky Way, about the same distance from the edge, the signals would still be 10 to 12 years away.

If intergallactic, it would require some civilization in, for instance, Andromeda to be at least a million and a half years of development ahead of earth.

Smaller scale, let's say there's another planet just 2000 light years away, or in the same galactic neighborhood. If we were at comparable levels of development, neither planet would see signals from the other for about 1,900 years.

I don't think the "should have by now" is a fair statement.

[Hortensis]

15. How about those who would have been a million

years before us? I didn't make this discussion up, just passing it along. In any case, the question of other intelligent civilizations isn't a closed universe in itself. There's always far more to know, and these are only my distillations of lay versions of a couple of far more complex theories. I hope and mostly expect they're both wrong.

And, really, what are the chances that some octopus civilization blew itself up long, long before the Cambrian explosion of 540 million years ago and some bit of DNA arrived here then? Worth thinking about, but I won't be trying to hang my mental hat on it.

[ProfessorGAC]

17. The Octopus Thing, We're In Lockstep On That

I think it's a ridiculous hypothesis.

Thing about the civilizations a million or even a billion years ahead of earth hinges on them being less than a million or a billion light years away.

Logic suggests that the more ancient the civilization, the farther away they would be. Those planets and the life that evolved would have needed at least something approaching the time it took here. Even if it were twice as fast, they'd still have to be a long way away.

Now, i'm in on the idea that the civilization may have become extinct at some point, but if they hit intelligent, technical life 500 million years ago, and went extinct 20 million years ago, that would still be a heck of a run, and those signals are out there. Just that those that sent them no longer exist. But, those could still be 100 million years out.

I'm in the "probabilistically there should be other intelligent life camp". Doesn't, unfortunately, mean that we'll know though.

[Hortensis]

18. I'm in the same camp, Professor.

It's a liberal thing, of course. Wondering and hoping for magnificent possibilities always outweighs any fear. Besides, the thought that we could really be all alone makes me somewhat understand the need to believe in a god.

[CrispyQ]

16. "...we should have by now."

The Hubble Deep Field: The Most Important Image Ever Taken
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2mo3w9

[LanternWaste]

21. What leads you to that allegation?

"and if it's out there we should have by now..."

What specifically leads you to that allegation?

[mithnanthy]

24. I can't eat them either...

I won't even eat at a restaurant that serves them. They have multiple hearts and brains too.

[enki23]

6. No serious scientist says anything of the sort.

Even the ridiculous, possibly hoax paper that set this off doesn't say anything of the sort.

[FSogol]

11. The slow-news-day-stretch of a scientific article. Since I'm sick of Roseanne & Trumpy, I'll take it

[Johonny]

31. Yup, read the actual article and it pretty much says it's junk science

While the study may give the impression that the origin of the octopus is a mystery, a paper published in Nature three years ago mapped the octopus genome.

Those scientists discovered that octopuses’ nervous system genes separated from those of squids around 135 million years ago — which is about 400 million years after the Cambrian explosion. The genome revealed nothing unusual about the evolution of the octopus.

[DetlefK]

13. It's bullshit. One of the authors is Chandra Wickramasinghe.

He's obsessed with the panspermia-theory and once found alien bacteria on a meteorite that had landed in murky water in a rice-field. And those alien bacteria looked exactly like terrestrian bacteria... I read his paper about that discovery: sloppy work, unanswered questions, obvious tests were not done. And published in a scientific journal that is trash.

While the study may give the impression that the origin of the octopus is a mystery, a paper published in Nature three years ago mapped the octopus genome.

Those scientists discovered that octopuses’ nervous system genes separated from those of squids around 135 million years ago — which is about 400 million years after the Cambrian explosion. The genome revealed nothing unusual about the evolution of the octopus.

Many of the octopuses-are-aliens study’s claims “are beyond speculative, and not even really looking at the literature,” virologist and biology professor Ken Stedman told Live Science.

So, why was this published? Because there are some scientific journals that will publish LITERALLY ANYTHING for money.

[exboyfil]

30. You are so right

There are even transitional looking species between standard squids and octopuses today. The vampire squid is one example. These are not the Common Ancestor of both, but maintains features of both implying that all three have evolved from an earlier Common Ancestor.

[egduj]

19. So says the vertebrae-privileged

[Sherman A1]

20. I knew that!

They are here to get our Snickers Candy Bars!

Now it all makes sense!

[riversedge]

22. I tend not to believe this theory...

....Many of the octopuses-are-aliens study’s claims “are beyond speculative, and not even really looking at the literature,” virologist and biology professor Ken Stedman told Live Science.

He debunked the scientists’ theory that alien viruses created octopuses from squids, explaining that an RNA-based retrovirus would have had to “evolve on a world where squid were already plentiful,” which was not the case.

In a commentary published along with the study, Karin Molling, a virologist at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, said the study is “very useful” – for contemplating new ways the universe has influenced Earth, that is.

However, “the main statement about viruses, microbes and even animals which came to us from space cannot be taken seriously,” she wrote. “There is no evidence for it at all.”

Almost as amazing as the scientists’ conclusion that octopuses may be aliens is the fact that a study with no real evidence was published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. If this makes you wonder how to know if a study is legitimate, check out Care2 writer Steve Williams’ helpful tips for spotting an untrustworthy study.

[MineralMan]

23. Unsupported Wackadoo Woo Hypothesis.

Consider the source. Even the article has a section on octupus evolution that is actually based on genetic analysis. Woo.

[RandomAccess]

25. And now they should take a look at cats, too

[MoonRiver]

28. Lol

[DBoon]

26. European sailors would release goats on far away islands

So they would have a source of meat should they ever revisit the island.

Maybe space aliens are partial to octopus sashimi?

[Thomas Hurt]

27. I still think Trump's hair is an alien symbiont...

[hunter]

29. The Precambrian had more crazy life experiments than we can imagine.

Most of it lost.

It's not surprising that all those who live today, human or octopus, enjoy a few deep genetic quirks.

[ProudLib72]

33. Space octopi stopped off on a passing meteor to have sex

Makes perfect sense to me.

[Baclava]

34. and they so pretty

Don't freak out, but scientists think octopuses 'might be aliens' after DNA study

Their genetic code is so strange that researchers think they might be something else altogether.

Usually, animals that are related in evolution share a lot of DNA, but octopuses have hundreds of genes that don’t appear in any other animals, including other mollusks.

And octopuses also have more genes that code proteins than humans do: 33,000 compared to fewer than 27,000 in humans.

The cells of octopuses have the ability to edit their RNA, rather than just translating it into proteins. That means that octopus genes can be even more variable than that of other animals, allowing them to change proteins as their environment changes — like altering a protein with changes in weather, so it works at other temperatures.

And although the genome is slightly smaller than a human’s, it is packed with more genes.

Analysis of 12 different tissues revealed hundreds of octopus-specific genes found in no other animal

http://home.bt.com/news/science-news/dont-freak-out-but-scientists-think-octopuses-might-be-aliens-after-dna-study-11363997587287