A review of Many Things Under a Rock – The Mysteries of Octopuses, by David Scheel
In recent years we have been spoiled with octopus books and films. From fascinating meditations about their intelligence and what it means for our understanding of evolution, by Peter Godfrey-Smith in Other Minds, to charming tributes to the joy and life-enhancing experience of encountering them underwater in the documentary My Octopus Teacher.
David Scheel’s riveting book adds another dimension. His perspective is the unsentimental and calm gaze of a working scientist who has spent decades studying these elusive and baffling creatures.
When he started his career, it was nigh on impossible to raise any funds for research into octopuses. But his groundbreaking work on the giant octopus in the cold waters of Alaska started to reveal the wonder of these highly intelligent animals, and the rest of the world has caught on.
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Today we are rightly fascinated by stories of their cunning intelligence, marvel at their ability to shapeshift and are keen to find out more about their short but complex lives.
Most of the obvious questions you have about octopuses and many more you will not have considered are covered in this excellent book by Scheel, who is the world’s leading expert on this most unusual marine creature.
Many Things Under a Rock – one of the indigenous names for octopus – is a thorough and lucid exploration of our state of knowledge about one of the ocean’s most enigmatic creatures, based on the hard grind of years of hands-on, field research.
