Squids And Other Invertebrates Can Probably Feel Pain
Reef Squid Wikimedia Commons Do animals without backbones, such as squids, crabs, and lobsters, feel pain? New research suggests they do. Evolutionary neurobiologist Robyn Crook and colleagues at the University of Texas Health Science Center have recently shown that cephalopods (a group including squid and octopi) possess nociceptors, nerve cell endings that quickly transmit potentially-damaging stimuli to the central nervous system. Crook "also has found that octopuses show much of the pain-related behavior seen in vertebrates, such as grooming and protecting an injured body part," as New Scientist reported. The animals are also more likely to retreat and squirt ink when touched near a wound than elsewhere on their body. Here's what's going on with squid: Squids, though, may feel pain very differently. Shortly after a squid’s fin is crushed, nociceptors become active not only in the region of the wound but across...