I love that the Census of Marine Life is getting news coverage! It proves that people can get excited over cool exploratory science--natural history of the deep--that doesn't have any immediate application.

If you want to hear deep-sea species discussed in a truly awesome Scottish accent, play this video and have a listen to Dr. Alan Hughes.

Speaking of cirrate octopods (as I have been recently), BBC News In Pictures: Monsters of the deep is strongly dominated by a cirrate octopus! Yay! Three of the eight photos feature Grimpoteuthis:

Picture #1 is very much dead, probably preserved in ethanol?
Picture #6 is the first photo I've seen of a person holding a cirrate octopus. Really brings home the size and the gelatinous consistency.

I wrote the following about the toothed sucker rings of the Humboldt squid in Squid Says: What's For Dinner? Probably Not You:

Each ring would barely fit on the finger of an infant, and the "teeth" range from the length of a pinhead to microscopic. An armful of these sucker rings raking across your skin is like being scratched by a lot of very small cats. Ouch, but far from deadly. If you were a fish, the sucker teeth wouldn't even get under your scales. Their purpose, like the "toothed" tongue, is similar to Velcro, and consequently the arms and tentacles are very, very good at holding onto things.

I discovered that Giant Squid was a band when I was searching for squid products on Amazon (yes, that is pretty typical behavior for me). Okay, I thought, rather miffed, some punk band thinks it's cool to name themselves after an enormous marine invertebrate, but I'm sure their songs are all angst and anger, not axons and . . . wait . . . Ampullae of Lorenzini?

Yes! Contrary to all my expectations, these kids know their marine biology. Their first album, Metridium Fields, is the name of a dive site in Monterey, which is densely populated with Metridium, this beautiful anemone: