Who’s your favorite fictional cephalopod or cephalopod-inspired character? Pop culture offers plenty of choices, from Squidward of “SpongeBob SquarePants” to the heptapod aliens of Arrival. Whether these portrayals accurately represent the biology, anatomy, and behavior of the animals that inspired them is another question.
Come find out how quickly Finding Dory’s Hank could regenerate his eighth arm, whether a kraken could really sink a ship, and why realistic octopus mermaids wouldn’t look like Ursula the sea witch. As for science fiction, assess the likelihood that other planets might host cephalopod-like aliens or that Marvel’s Doc Ock could become a reality as engineers learn to mimic octopus arms.
Cephalopod expert and author Danna Staaf debunks myths and proves that truth can be stranger than fiction.
General Information
