Carniverous Mollusks

[Uncle Bob]

A French yacht was attacked by a giant squid. Make your own jokes, but this is real.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2661691.stm

And some unconfirmed reports

Posted by A.ndy on Tanknet
In the last few years a number of new species have been found:

Off New Zealand, an octopus measuring 13 feet across was caught in a fishing net. That's the body - not the tentacles.

The megamouth shark was rediscovered about a decade ago - an ancient species with a mouth large enough to swallow a full grown man.

My favorite - the Vampire Squid - was found at about 10,000 feet deep and has daggers in place of where the suckers are located.

The "Dumbo" octopus was found on a deep sea expedition. The body is about as large as a beach ball, but it gets the name from two massive fleshy appendages (insert Beavis laugh here) that look like massive ears. These are used to propel the creature through the depths of the black.

Umm, the megamouth shark isn't a molusk and has been extinct for a few million years.

I have heard a story about an Octopus that climbed out of his tank and ate the fish in a nearby tank, then climbed back before the morning crew came on duty.

I have seen an octopus unscrew the top of a jar to get at the snails inside. Mollusks are dumb?

 

[trader jim]

carniverous mollusks....Wow I like that....next time you open a can of Campbells clam chowder, be very careful....it just might EAT YOU!!.....yum, yum, tasty

 

[Uncle Bob]

Not all mammals are carniverous either. I wouldn't worry about your chowder, but watch the kalimari.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Squid & Octopi are cephalopods, not true mollusks (which have shells). The Nautilus is the sole specie still with a shell.

In Traveller, we do have the Githiaskoi-arising to TL-7 before contact with humaniti was made. they are one of our canon Aquatic sentient minor alien races (and are Squids!).

 

[Jame]

Ugly beasties, aren't they? I hear squid are mean, while octopi are milder.

Now, I wonder if anyone has contacted/created a sapient squid? And yes, I'm not counting the Githiaskio, them being octopi and all.

 

[gardclan]

GURPS has something similar in "RIM of FIRE"... They're not really cephelopods, but they look similar enough. They're called the "Gurungan". You can find them on P34.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Let us not forget our dear buddy the Tree Kraken, while we're at it, shall we?

 

[shield]

Liam,

How could the arch TNE heritic forget the schalli from the old expanses - they are more lobsters than squid.

Cheers
Richard

 

[Liam Devlin]

Originally posted by RichardP:
Liam,

How could the arch TNE heritic forget the schalli from the old expanses - they are more lobsters than squid.

Cheers
Richard

_________________________________________________
The Schalli are a combination between cephalopod & mammal (dolphin/orca) from their illustrations & descriptions. they have no exoskeleton like a crustacean (lobster, crab, prawn, etc) or shell like a true mollusk (clam, scallop, oyster, mussel, limpet, barnacle, snail).
Their family life styles are in pods, and like their Terran counterparts, use sonic "singing' to communicate/ navigate. the appendages they have make them more advantageous to human tools.

I'd say they were unique, but in a class by themselves.
Heretically yours,
as ever was...

 

[Uncle Bob]

From the Encyclopaedia Britannica (www.Britainnica.com),

Cephalopod

any member of the class Cephalopoda, of the phylum Mollusca, a small group of highly advanced and organized, exclusively marine animals. The octopus , squid (see photograph), cuttlefish , and chambered nautilus are familiar representatives. The extinct forms outnumber the living, the class having attained great diversity in late Paleozoic and Mesozoic…

From the Merriam-Webster Collegiate dictionary (www.m-w.com)

Main Entry: mol·lusk
Variant(s): or mol·lusc /'mä-l&sk/
Function: noun
Etymology: French mollusque, from New Latin Mollusca, from Latin, neuter plural of molluscus thin-shelled (of a nut), from mollis
Date: 1783
: any of a large phylum (Mollusca) of invertebrate animals (as snails, clams, or squids) with a soft unsegmented body usually enclosed in a calcareous shell; broadly : SHELLFISH
- mol·lus·can also mol·lus·kan /m&-'l&s-k&n, mä-/ adjective

This word, I think it does not mean what you think it means.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Methinks Mollusca Might be Right, and Liam must be wrong! Thanks Uncle Bob!

 

[trader jim]

this thread makes me think differently about "water Worlds" might be more there that one thinks about!...just think..there you are trying to survive after crashing on a water world small Island ....your walking along the reef looking for fish to spear and SLURP your lunch for somthing big and ugly!!!....or you step into a giant clam on the beach, it closes and traps your foot, you cant get it out, the tide comes it, O'WELL, start rolling another charecture!!! HHHmmmmnn are we having fun yet??