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COST Action FA1301 Management Committee and Working Groups Meetings – Program 

On 9 October 2014 participants will discuss the advancements of the first year of activities of CephsInAction. Focus will be also given to recent results achieved in fields of study relevant to the different tasks and WGs of the Action. The discussion will also allow a better planning of future work (Friday – 10 October, 2014).

The Meeting is also the occasion of a Special Scientific Event “Cephalopod Vision Workshop” (scheduled in the afternoon on Friday 10th October).

In the morning of 11 October 2014 the Management Committee members will meet to define key actions for the 2015, with an eye on a longer plan.

Napoli (Italy) has been chosen as location of the meeting that will conclude the first year of activities of CephsInAction because the Bay of Naples is considered an important (perhaps key) location for studies on cephalopods. This seems the first place in the world where a systematic investigation of and experimentation on cephalopod biology have been carried out; these animals also interested the founder of the Stazione Zoologica, Anton Dohrn. Since its foundation cephalopods have been among the favourite research objects of the Stazione Zoologica and a symbol of the Aquarium. The main gate of the Stazione (projected in 1907) is still today decorated with a line with octopuses.

Until the second half of the XIX century very little was known about their life and habits. Two fundamental studies about the anatomy, the development and the systematics of cephalopods were published by Giuseppe Jatta (in 1896) and Adolf Naef (1923, 1928). Early observations on the activities of octopuses living in the tanks of the Aquarium – carried out by Dohrn himself – showed their complex behavior and their great ‘intelligence’. Further anatomical and physiological investigations underlined further particularities: among the first field of intense research were the anatomy and the physiology of the eye.

The question whether the ‘first’ experiments and/or observations on these fascinating species has been carried out in Napoli (Italy) or in Bermuda,  is still debated.

The dates of this CephsInAction meeting overlap also with the Cephalopod Awareness Day.

Local Organizer

COST Action FA1301 – CephsInAction

Association for Cephalopod Research ‘CephRes’ – ONLUS

Venue of the Meetings

CephRes seat @ Fondazione Santobono Pausillipon – Palazzo Ravaschieri (Napoli, Italy)

StarHotel Terminus – Napoli