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It is a common assumption among humans that other animals experience the world in the same way that we do. We taste our food with our tongue, therefore all other animals must taste our food with their tongue as well. (Well, at least animals that have tongues and mouths.) This is very arrogant of us. And also bad.
Octopuses, in fact, have tongues. They are called radulas. But they are not used to taste; Instead, they are sharp and tough and are used to scrape open shellfish. However, it would be a mistake to assume that octopuses have no sense of taste. Recently, New scientist reports, a group of Harvard researchers discovered that an octopus’s tasting organ is the suction cups on its arms. (So yes, they open the food with their mouths and savor with their appendages, the complete opposite of us.)
More precisely, octopuses use their arms to test their prey before devouring it. This is useful, because octopuses hunt by stretching their arms blindly in crevices and feeling around. If you do, you risk getting hold of something that is bad for you. But, the scientists discovered, the suction cups contain cells that respond to the “flavors” of the water. Using a technique called electrophysiology that measures the electrical activity of cells, they found that cells reacted when they detected toxic chemicals at close range.
How helpful would it be to know that something tastes bad / is bad for you before you actually put it in your mouth? Oh to be an octopus!
