There’s that, and also their short lifespan (1 to 5 years).
And the fact that the mother only cares for their offspring while they’re in eggs.
Forms of transmission of behaviors by imitation or communication mostly emerge in species that care for their young, like birds or mammals, because the young learns from their parents, which complements instinct. It gets stronger when they’re a social species, because they also learn from every other individual. That’s when culture begins to emerge (like how some “accents” or “dialects” can be identified in the songs of birds or whales of a same species). But a specie that isn’t social and doesn’t care for it’s young, whatever an individual learnt in its lifetime dies with it, behaviors can only be transmitted genetically edit: inexact,seebelow , so they’re slower to evolve.
[EDIT : I looked up some things online to make sure I wasn’t spreading disinformation (should’ve been the other way around, sorry…) and it seems some nuance needs to be added to two things;
Despite being usually asocial and sometimes confrontational, octopuses can occasionally display social behaviors such as signal, so they’re not devoid of inter-individual communication source
They seem to be able to learn from each-other to a certain extent. Source
I still think my point mostly stands, but it’s a bit shakier than I thought.]
I agree with the point you’re making. I’d just like to note that the mother doesn’t care for her children because she dies taking care of the eggs. The eggs get attached to a ceiling of an underwater cave, and the mother watches the eggs until she dies of starvation. It is theorized that this happens to prevent the mother from eating her children.
There’s that, and also their short lifespan (1 to 5 years). And the fact that the mother only cares for their offspring while they’re in eggs.
Forms of transmission of behaviors by imitation or communication mostly emerge in species that care for their young, like birds or mammals, because the young learns from their parents, which complements instinct. It gets stronger when they’re a social species, because they also learn from every other individual. That’s when culture begins to emerge (like how some “accents” or “dialects” can be identified in the songs of birds or whales of a same species). But a specie that isn’t social and doesn’t care for it’s young, whatever an individual learnt in its lifetime dies with it, behaviors can only be transmitted genetically edit: inexact, see below , so they’re slower to evolve.
[EDIT : I looked up some things online to make sure I wasn’t spreading disinformation (should’ve been the other way around, sorry…) and it seems some nuance needs to be added to two things;
Despite being usually asocial and sometimes confrontational, octopuses can occasionally display social behaviors such as signal, so they’re not devoid of inter-individual communication source
They seem to be able to learn from each-other to a certain extent. Source
I still think my point mostly stands, but it’s a bit shakier than I thought.]
I agree with the point you’re making. I’d just like to note that the mother doesn’t care for her children because she dies taking care of the eggs. The eggs get attached to a ceiling of an underwater cave, and the mother watches the eggs until she dies of starvation. It is theorized that this happens to prevent the mother from eating her children.
That is absolutely fucking metal. TIL.