Next Up: #7 Cookie Cutter Shark and the #10 Common Octopus #2018MMM
Both of these species are found broadly, with the common octopus having a nearly global distribution in shallow ocean areas #2018MMM
The common octopus is fairly large with a width of up to 4' and a weight of over 20 pounds. That's a whole lotta Polpi thespruce.com/italian-octopu… #2018MMM
Kathryn Harmon Courage (@KHCourage) wrote one of the best books I read last year about the Octopus. A great read about the animal and its cultural significance (and sea sickness) amazon.co.uk/Octopus-Most-M… #2018MMM
Unlike the octopus, the cookie cutter shark is more commonly found in deeper waters, at least during the day #2018MMM
The cookie cutter shark is named because of its unique dentition, it has large bottom teeth which it uses to take a plug of flesh out of its prey. Image from Widder 1998 link.springer.com/article/10.102… #2018MMM 
Side bar, @WhitenackLab and I had a paper accepted today showing how you can use shark teeth to teach evolution.... #2018MMM
While at depth, the Cookie Cutter shark uses a special band of photopigment cells on its jaw to lure in its normally fast swimming prey link.springer.com/article/10.102… #2018MMM
Typically cookie cutter sharks prey on mammals & bill fish, however here is a photo of a tuna I found in the Suva (Fiji) fish market with a cookie cutter shark bite #2018MMM
Sashimi anyone? #2018MMM
And while the chances are miniscule, cookie cutter sharks have been known to attack people bioone.org/doi/abs/10.298… #2018MMM
Tonight the Cookie Cutter Shark faces off against a hyper-intelligent invertebrate, the Common Octopus in the waters off of Hawaii #2018MMM
Cookie Cutter swims up from the depths at night into shallow water in search of prey link.springer.com/article/10.100… #2018MMM
There the shark smells its prey, a common octopus which is also out prowling for food (tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…) #2018MMM
The shark, only about 2' in length is not afriad of taking a bite of something bigger. It lurks, slowly swimming up #2018MMM
The octopus has a highly developed sense of smell so is aware of the lurking shark, it retreats into a coral cave #2018MMM
From there the Octopus strikes first! Shooting out two long tentacles, the shark thrashes but cannot escape the suction cup grip #2018MMM
The shark lashes around trying to bite, but its jaws are more designed for offense than defense and its gape-limited bite means it can't quite get around the tentacle #2018MMM
The mantle of the octopus envelopes the shark, cutting off water flow, the shark gives a final shudder as its systems shut down one after another from lack of oxygen #2018MMM
OCTOPUS DEFEATS COOKIE CUTTER SHARK #2018MMM
