Octopus aliens? Origin theory doesn’t hold water for local expert
By Justin Seward - Lethbridge Herald on October 28, 2022.
The Canadian Federation of University Women welcomed Jennifer Mather to the University of Lethbridge recently to speak on the research surrounding the theory that octopuses could have been seeded on planet earth through life-bearing comets.Mather got her PhD in Boston, and it was while growing up in Victoria, B.C., that she gained an interest in marine animals living on the seashore and exploring them all the time.
“There was this group of cosmologists, people who try to understand the universe, who decided that octopuses were smart, they must’ve descended from space on icy platforms —I think like comets,” said Mather. “Ignoring the fact that comets usually burn up. But I was trying to explain why it wasn’t likely. And one of the reasons it wasn’t likely is octopuses are molluscs and they’re smart because they’ve had strong evolutionary pressure to be smart, but not social pressure. So, we’ve had this idea that animals in complex societies get smart — and octopuses absolutely contradict that. So it makes it hard for people like these cosmologists to figure out what’s going on.”
Mather said one of the things the cosmologists argued is they were evolving from the nautilus, a pelagic marine mollusc, which is not true.
“So the thing is they say there’s no record in the fossil, and of course there isn’t because fossils, shells and bones and hard structures are preserved in the fossil record and octopuses don’t have any of that,” said Mather. “So that’s why they’re not preserved in the fossil record. But that’s not particularly good evidence for them having come from space.”
Mather said they come from ancient molluscs.
Mather has been studying the topic for over 40 years.
“But they are fascinating, they’re very smart and they’re not like us,” she said.
Mather has discovered that octopuses use tools.
“We used to think that humans were the only ones that used tools and we know that’s not true anymore,” said Mather. “Nonetheless, we kind of see that as an index of intelligence. They have very strong personalities which is really fascinating to think about. There’s shy octopuses, bold octopuses (and) active octopuses.”
Mather would argue that the thought process should be less about humans having cornered the market on intelligence and more about other ways to consider intelligence.
“And also maybe we should stop believing we should have dominion over the earth and run the earth because we’re not the only animals that are important and we’re certainly making a mess of our dominion over the earth,” said Mather. 2
-1
