The Need for an Internal Skeleton
The need for an internal skeleton stems largely from the nature of muscle tissue, which can exert force only by contracting and is therefore much more effective with a good lever system to work with. I belittle neither the intelligence nor the strength of the octopus; but in spite of Victor Hugo and most other writers of undersea adventure, the creature's boneless tentacles are not all that effective as handling organs. I don't mean that the octopus and his kin are helpless hunks of meat; but if I had my choice of animals I was required to duel to the death, I would pick one of this tribe rather than one of their bonier rivals, the barracuda or the moray eel, even though neither of the latter have any prehensile organs but their jaws. (If any experienced scuba divers wish to dispute this matter of taste, go right ahead. I admit that so far, thank goodness, I am working from theory on this specific matter.)
Notes:
Folksonomies: physics biology speculation
Taxonomies:
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/sports/scuba diving (0.285240)
/art and entertainment/music (0.193855)
Keywords:
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Entities:
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Concepts:
Scuba diving (0.919967): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Energy (0.917394): dbpedia | freebase
Moray eel (0.805583): dbpedia | freebase
Skeleton (0.802817): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Underwater diving (0.793980): dbpedia | freebase
Fish (0.791496): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Eel (0.782354): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
English-language films (0.775991): dbpedia
The Creation of Imaginary Beings