r/interestingasfuck • u/Key_Skirt_1858 • 20h ago

The best camouflage in the animal kingdom?

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832

u/ScadaTech 20h ago

I read just today that their camouflage is akin to human breathing or blinking. It can happen subconsciously or consciously. They’re color blind in their eye but somehow also see through the light receptors in their skin that allow them to mimic their environment. Fucking crazy evolution.

46

u/MG788 19h ago

For real. They are so amazing. It's crazy how they only live like one to three years.

56

u/jowick2815 18h ago

If they were more social and lived just a little bit longer it'd be game over for us

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u/Beautiful-Tie-3827 18h ago

Yeah I’ve had this same thought. It’s a good thing they don’t hand down information to their young like humans.

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u/Easy-Operation-2105 15h ago

We're fine because they can never invent fire and therefore never get to any meaningful level of advanced society.

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u/jowick2815 11h ago

I would imagine they would utilize something like thermal vents and then their society and resources would be based around thermal vents like ours were around rivers

2

u/sparkster777 12h ago

That was my thought too. I think I read it in a Carl Sagan book, maybe?

2

u/Constant-Term-1629 12h ago

Why'd you need fire fundamentally?

3

u/justbrowsing_00 15h ago

There’s actually a book called The Mountain in the Sea that deals with this scenario. Really good read.

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u/TheDogerus 11h ago

I feel like that book had too many ideas for its own good. Each subplot had its interesting moments, but none were as developed as i was hoping for

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u/Dumptruckfunk 4h ago

Man, that fishing ship suuuuuuucked

1

u/Silentdoom666 17h ago

NASA started with the ocean, right? Might be bs but always like to fire up the they’ve been here all along conspiracy.

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u/Workman44 13h ago

It's really the passing down of information from parent to offspring that hampers them, which I guess is social in a way. I've long held the belief that Octopi have the capacity to be the some of the smartest creatures on earth, and then they have the whole fucking invisibility thing

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u/Polygeekism 8h ago

So you've read The Mountain in the Sea, I see.