this post was submitted on 02 May 2024
372 points (99.5% liked)
science
14445 readers
1 users here now
just science related topics. please contribute
note: clickbait sources/headlines aren't liked generally. I've posted crap sources and later deleted or edit to improve after complaints. whoops, sry
Rule 1) Be kind.
lemmy.world rules: https://mastodon.world/about
I don't screen everything, lrn2scroll
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
They don't live long enough, sadly. If they did, they could easily be the dominant species. Many octopus species have been shown to have the intelligence of a 7 year old. Besides the fact that it's a form of intelligence that evolved completely separate from ours (our last common ancestors didn't have a brain), octopi only live about 3-4 years. Think about that for a moment.
So about as smart of some former presidents. Awesome!
Precisely what I was thinking about when I said that in jest. But seriously, they are incredible creatures!
The problem is not how long they live but that they don't take care of the offspring, so every octopus need to learn everything from scratch again.