Octopuses

Octopuses Are Increasingly Using Trash For Shelter, Harrowing Study Shows

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Human waste has become so ubiquitous in the ocean, it’s becoming easier for octopuses to shelter in our trash than in seashells or coral. A systematic review of underwater photographs and videos from around the world has tallied 24 cephalopod species making their homes in marine litter.   For years, divers and scientists have observed … Read more

Ancient ‘Vampire’ Cephalopod From 330 Million Years Ago Is a First of Its Kind

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An exceptional fossil unearthed in Montana has given us the earliest known ancestor of vampire squids and octopuses. The cephalopod, belonging to the vampyropod or octopodiform superorder, pushes back the age of the group by about 82 million years.   This challenges our understanding that octopuses evolved from a Triassic ancestor. Fascinatingly, it has not eight, … Read more

Octopuses gather at warm deep-sea site because it speeds up egg hatching

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Thousands of brooding octopus mothers gather at a spot 3200 metres deep off the coast of California because warmer water there dramatically reduces hatching times Life 2 March 2022 By Michael Le Page A cluster of octopuses at Davidson Seamount off the coast of California Ocean Exploration Trust/NOAA Thousands of octopus mothers lay and tend … Read more

World’s First Octopus Farm Planned For 2023 Is Raising Serious Ethical Concerns

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Rising demands in the global cephalopod trade have encouraged the Spanish aquaculture company Nueva Pescanova to push forward with their plans to open the world’s first octopus farm sometime next year.   Proponents of the venture claim the breeding programs will ease pressure on overtaxed fisheries and provide local jobs. But ethicists, zoologists, and environmentalists … Read more

‘Once-in-a-Lifetime Encounter’ With Rare Octopus Filmed at Great Barrier Reef

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A mesmerizing new video shows a “once-in-a-lifetime encounter” with a bizarre, bright red octopus swimming above the Great Barrier Reef in northeastern Australia.  The encounter, first reported by local Australian news website Bundaberg Now, was a rare sighting of a blanket octopus, named after the blanket-like fleshy cape between its arms. Jacinta Shackleton, a marine biologist and reef guide, filmed and photographed … Read more

A Weird Paper Tests The Limits of Science by Claiming Octopuses Came From Space

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A summary of decades of research on a rather ‘out-there’ idea involving viruses from space raises questions on just how scientific we can be when it comes to speculating on the history of life on Earth.   It’s easy to throw around words like crackpot, rogue, and maverick in describing the scientific fringe, but then … Read more