Question about deep-sea ceph's

Adaptations of octos to hydrothermal fluid

Since it concerns adaptations to deep-sea environment, I didn't start a new thread but it's a little different from the thread topic. hope it's ok.

I was just reading a paper about physiological adaptations of crabs living around hydrothermal vents and wondered what was the case for ceph species which are known to forage around vents.

These crabs manages to survive high sulphide concentrations due to the ability of the hepatopancreas to rapidly oxidise the sulphide entering the circulation at the gills to non-toxic sulphur compounds.
By doing so, they are capable of surviving sulphide levels that would normally inhibit aerobic respiration and therefore be lethal to other animals.

I guess not much research on this has been done with cephs but it would be interesting to know what sort of mechanism these cephs are using considering their microvillar skin, which might not help them. Does anybody have an idea how they manage to tolerate high H2S levels??
I don't have a clue!

Cheers,

eups
 
Phil said:
I'm afraid not an answer for you Euprymna, but this link may be of interest:

A Vulcanoctopus garden

Thanks for the link Phil! I wonder if that's the only species found around vents or even cold seeps

Fujisawas Sake said:
Eups,

Sounds a like a kick butt article. If possible, could you send me a link to the paper? PM me if you can, thank you.

John

Hi John,

I came accross this reprint when hanging around someone's office so I do not know if it's available online and considering the date, I doubt it. However, I can give you the reference:

Vetter R.D, Wells M.E, Kurtsman A.L and Somero G.N, 1987. Sulfide detoxification by the hydrothermal vent crab Bythograea thermydron and other decapod crustaceans. Physiol. Zool. 60(1): 121-137

The studies on hydrothermal vent invertebrates are fascinating and so much more to be done.
I would love to go for a little ride in Alvin!


cheers,

eups
 
Steve O'Shea said:
My science teacher told me and my folks at one of those parent-teacher thingies that I'd "never amount to anything because I was too tunnel visioned". That hurt more than anything anyone has ever said.

Hear that one, my friend. Had an art teacher tell me that my work was "purile", and that even though "you have no talent, you'll probably make it because you're stubborn". Nice guy. I laughed when his wife dumped him.

Onto the submarines...Erich and I were talking at Tonmocon about building a remote submersible...hmmm.
 
Hmmm...I think we were talking more about tubes and lights, etc. That is one heck of neat sub, though. Would be a bummer if a large male showed up (shades of Ace Ventura) !
 
Not sure if this will be helpful in the cell-membrane adaptation question, but here's a ref that immediately sprang to mind - it examines different dermal structures ('scales,' 'warts,' etc.) in taxa like Pholidoteuthis and Lepidoteuthis, and gives some nifty histologucal cross-section diagrams and photos. Also may be slightly easier to read than some of those other ones. :bonk: Unfortunately not available online as far as I could tell, but if you can Interloan...

Roper, C. F. E.; Lu, C.C. 1990. Comparative morphology and function of dermal structures in oceanic squids (Cephalopoda). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 493: 1–40.
 
I thought Lepidoteuthis grimaldi was renamed? Also, do the deep sea cephs spend any considerable time at the vents? If not is it just possible that they just don't dwell long enough to uptake a lethal dose of H2S?

Graeme
 

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