. . . the absence of a skeleton in a marine life form constitutes a form of perfection

21. Octopus and Squid: The Soft Intelligence by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Philippe Diole

Don't let the wording of this book's title mislead you -- "soft" refers to body makeup, not the animals' intelligence. Published in 1973 as part of Jacques Cousteau's Undersea Discovery series, it is one of the earliest explorations of the four well known cephalopods -- the octopuses (~80% of the book), the squids, the cuttlefish, and the nautiluses. One of my very favorite animals, in fact one of my totems, is the octopus, but I know surprisingly little about this mollusk without a shell beyond that many people find them tasty and I find them mesmerizing. This book, while as old as my sister would be were she still alive, is kind of a "getting to know you" book in which Cousteau describes many of the octopus's abilities that had previously never been known since SCUBA diving was still merely in its toddler-hood. Within the pages are descriptions of the octopus's amazing ability to disappear into a crack, its home-building activities, its mimetic (camoflauge) abilities, its means and manner of movement, its playfulness, its reasoning and problem solving capabilities, and its mating habits. The book is loaded with color photographs at nearly every turn of the page. Here are two photos demonstrating camoflauge, with an octopus being mostly brown with green flecks sitting on an airplane's sunken engine covered with algae, and another gone completely white when placed on a large plastic plate. There is an entire series of photos of an octopus exploring a large glass jar with its arms and then pulling its stopper to retrieve the tasty lobster contained within. The final chapters mention in passing the other three cephalopods, with a clear admiration for the nautilus. This book makes me hungry for more recent discoveries about these beautiful creatures.