Cephaloponderings

If you find this interesting “other minds” by Peter Godfrey Smith is an excellent book.

> the males that detach their mating arms to keep from being eaten, and generally they really can’t mate again after that (why they bother trying to avoid being cannibalized if they don’t mate again afterwards)

Nothing prevents them to mate again. Male octopuses are able to regenerate lost arms and the Hectocotylus easily. The best known species live fast and have short lives in any case.

Even if only a small % of males manage to reproduce after mating arm removal; over time, would that not lead to the gene for surving reproduction to be selected and become more common?

Great article, and indeed confusing questions. Wish we can learn more about octopuses, specially the social octopuses.

Also interesting were recent mdma experiments on octopuses.

Thanks for the read. Its utterly bizarre to hear the math of it

  All this points to orphaned octopus babies having an advantage over those with living parents, 
  which is easy enough to fathom. Without mom and dad around, the kids are left with more food and territory for themselves. 
  However I’m still confused. Wouldn’t a given gene be more likely to replicate itself residing 
  in an individual that reproduced multiple times in addition to being in half the octopus babies it helped produce?

How does a gene that a parent only passes down (typically) once that inhibits survival after mating outlive a mutation that doesn't?

My God, what a lovely post.