English Wikipedia @ Freddythechick:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2018 November 7

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November 7

(Re)Inventing the wheel

Structure of bacterial flagellum.

Some time ago I watched a short video on an octopus travelling slowly across the bottom of some maritime region. I was rather stunned to realise that it used some of its tentacles to create ad hoc / temporary "wheels" for locomotion. Two (?) tentacles were "rolled up" into a sort of helical structure (like a short cork screw) and the animal then "unrolled" these two wheels between head and substrate whilst preparing more tentacles for locomotion.
Unfortunately, I missed to save a reference. I would be curious to learn if octopuses habitually use this method of "driving" on the bottom of some maritime habitat or if this specific individual has just done a quantum leap to invent the wheel. Thank you for any help! --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 11:06, 7 November 2018 (UTC)

Nature "invented" the wheel long before that. See:
--Guy Macon (talk) 05:39, 8 November 2018 (UTC)
I've seen similar footage. Good stuff. Octopi are pretty intelligent as invertebrates go. It's not surprising they have figured out how to use their tentacles in various ways. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 01:31, 9 November 2018 (UTC)
[ https://xkcd.com/928/ ] --Guy Macon (talk) 01:45, 9 November 2018 (UTC)