Cephalopods: life like our own?

Cephalopods: life like our own?

Prof. Daniel Osorio, University of Sussex

7:30 for 8:00pm start on Wednesday 18th January

If life started again here or another planet would animals evolve to be much like those on Earth today? Cephalopods - octopus, squid and cuttlefish - are in many ways the equals of vertebrates. We will see that the bodies and behaviours of these wonderful animals are in some ways quite alien and in others rather familiar, and ask what the cephalopods can tell us about how our own life-form has been shaped by evolutionary chance and physiological necessity.

Prof. Daniel Osorio is the Professor of Neuroscience at the School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, where he runs The Cuttlefish Group, amongst other things. His research centres on understanding how animals see colour, how they recognise the objects they encounter in their daily lives, and how these abilities have evolved. His studies encompass a variety of animals including butterflies, primates, birds and cephalopod molluscs.