Evolutionists believe that octopuses brains may have become complex the same way human brains did

David Fleetham/Alamy

Joel Kontinen 

 For Darwinists, the octopus is a hard a hard´s nut to crack, They assume that octopuses have alien genes, and that some of them might live on Jupiter’s moon Europa.  

Some believe that octopuses genome abounds in transposons or transposable elements (TEs). Also known as jumping genes, they can move from one place to another within the genome.

When describing the octopus, journalists tend to run out of superlatives. A writer in Nature described it as an eight-legged marvel and another used the expressions octopus ballet and uncanny intelligence.

Few animals can match its intelligence.

Jumping genes move about in the part of the genome once dismissed as junk. Some believe that octopuses genome abounds in transposons or transposable elements (TEs). Also known as jumping genes, they can move from one place to another within the genome. hen describing the octopus, journalists tend to run out of superlatives. A writer in Nature described it as an eight-legged marvel and another used the expressions octopus ballet and uncanny intelligence. Few animals can match its intelligence. Jumping genes move about in the part of the genome once dismissed as junk. 

Now, a new study has likened them to humans. 

Source: 

Le Page, Michael. 2022, Octopus brains may have become complex the same way human brains did. New Scientist 17 March

Evolution – Slippery As An Octopus

Image courtesy of Albert Kok, Creative Commons, (CC BY-SA 3.0).




Joel Kontinen

Darwinists are more than willing to embrace views that in effect contradict each other.

This prompted Eric Metaxas to say: “What’s the difference between evolutionary theory and an octopus? Well, one is a slippery, color-changing escape artist that can get out of any tough situation and the other is an aquatic invertebrate.”

He is not the only one to see contradictions in evolutionary theory. The late Philip Skell thought that thought Darwinian explanations were redundant as they often were self-contradictory.

Source:

Metaxas, Eric. 2015. Darwinism Versus the Octopus: An Evolutionary Dilemma. Break Point (8 September).

Intelligent Design: "Octopus Is an Eight-Legged Marvel"

The common octopus (Octopus vulgaris). Image courtesy of Albert Kok, Wikipedia.



Joel Kontinen

The more we get to know about the animal kingdom, the more amazing it turns out to be. A recent article in Nature news described the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) as a marvel:

“To researchers who study how living things move, the octopus is an eight-legged marvel, managing its array of undulating appendages by means of a relatively simple nervous system. Some studies have suggested that each of the octopus’s tentacles has a 'mind' of its own, without rigid central coordination by the animal’s brain.”

There’s more:

“Now neuroscientist Guy Levy and his colleagues at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem report that the animals can rotate their bodies independently of their direction of movement, reorienting them while continuing to crawl in a straight line. And, unlike species that use their limbs to move forward or sideways relative to their body's orientation, octopuses tend to slither around in all directions.”

The researchers were surprised. So was the article writer. The octopus’ co-ordination is amazing, and so is animal intelligence in general.

It might be good to remember that intelligence is an immaterial trait and cannot be explained away by Darwinian storytelling. Intelligent solutions require an intelligent designer.

Source:

Shen, Helen. 2013. Worm-like movements propel octopus ballet. Nature news (15 November).

Astounding Octopus Discovery

Octopuses have resisted Darwinian evolution for a long, long time. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

Octopuses are surprisingly intelligent cephalopods. Known for their eight arms – the word octopus comes from the Greek oκτάπους or ‘eight-footed’ - and their ability to evade predators by squirting ink at them, they are mostly found near coral reefs. In captivity, they have opened cans with their arms and escaped from aquariums with ease.

Now, a new study in the journal Palaeontology examines an astounding find - five fossilised octopuses. This is an extremely rare find. Formed mostly of muscle and skin, an octopus usually decays in a few days after it dies, leaving nothing behind. ScienceDaily reports: “The chances of an octopus corpse surviving long enough to be fossilized are so small that prior to this discovery only a single fossil species was known, and from fewer specimens than octopuses have legs.”

The octopuses were found in Lebanon in rocks interpreted as belonging to the Cretaceous period. Assumed to be 95 million years old, the fossils are so well preserved that even ink and suckers can be distinguished. Lead author Dirk Fuchs of the Freie University Berlin said, “These things are 95 million years old, yet one of the fossils is almost indistinguishable from living species.”

This find speaks of amazing stasis or lack of change. While dating methods are by no means absolute since they rely on assumptions that can never be tested, the octopuses nevertheless call into question the evolution of these creatures. Like many living fossils such as the coelacanth, tuatara and horseshoe crab , they have basically resisted change for aeons.

The octopuses had to be buried catastrophically. The most likely explanation for the amazing preservation of the animals is the year-long global flood mentioned in the Book of Genesis. It would have provided just the right conditions that were needed to keep the octopus remains intact to our day.



Source:

Cretaceous Octopus With Ink And Suckers -- The World's Least Likely Fossils. ScienceDaily 18 March 2009.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090317111902.htm