8 Amazing Octopus Facts, from Playful to Good at Remembering
8 Amazing Octopus Facts, from Playful to Good at Remembering
Octopuses have brain cells that circulate throughout the body. Not only that, the unique fact of this animal is more than that.
Octopuses are mischievous creatures who love to play, full of curiosity. Their abilities may surprise us.
In his audiobook, Other Minds: The Octopus And The Evolution Of Intelligent Life, philosopher and diver Peter Godfrey-Smith explores the surprising evolutionary journey of cephalopods.
Here are amazing octopus facts:
Octopuses are smart but most of their brain cells are actually in their 'arms'
Octopuses have a large nervous system, with the average octopus having about 500 million neurons or brain cells.
That puts it in the same "brain span" as smaller mammals like dogs.
Unlike dogs, humans and others, most of the neurons are found in the octopus' arms and not in the brain, with nearly twice as many.
Each sucker in an octopus' arm may have 10,000 neurons to handle taste and touch.
Octopuses can be trained and have the ability to remember
Research conducted in the last 70 years has shown that these animals can be trained to perform simple tasks.
In one particular experiment, a number of octopuses were able to pull a lever to earn the prize of a piece of sardine.
The octopus had also undergone a visual test and was faced with a simple task, one of which was to remember something with one eye closed and then the other.
It was a long process, but the octopus outperformed many other animals, including pigeons.
Octopus is very naughty
In the lever experiment mentioned above, three octopuses are involved. They were named Albert, Bertram and Charles.
Albert and Bertram were the most consistent, while Charles was a bit stubborn and broke the lever!
If that wasn't enough, Charles also sprayed water on whoever was doing the experiment that day!
Octopuses that did not carry out commands in experiments were recorded in various aquariums, including those that had learned to turn off lights by spraying jets of water on a bulb and short-circuiting the power supply.
At the University of Otago in New Zealand, the experimental project was so expensive that an octopus had to be released back into the wild.
Octopuses recognize people individually
In the same lab in New Zealand that had a "blackout" problem, an octopus disliked a member of the lab staff, for no apparent reason.
Every time that person passed, he received a spray of half a gallon of water down the back of his neck!
Octopus likes to play
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the mischievous antics described above, they are delightful creatures.
Several octopuses in the lab were seen spending time blowing pill bottles around the tank, bouncing the bottles back and forth in the stream of water coming from the tank's inlet valve.
Octopus reproduce hand in hand For many species of octopus, we can tell if they are male or female if they have a groove under the right arm of all three.
If the groove is there, then the octopus is male. They use this arm for mating. They reproduce by extending the arm toward the female and, if she accepts it, a packet of sperm is passed along the underside of the arm.
Females often then store sperm for some time before fertilizing their eggs.
High five is their standard greeting When octopuses are on the move, they are sometimes seen "striking" with their hands at other octopuses in the nest.
However, Professor Stefan Linquist, who has studied the behavior of octopuses, believes this interaction is actually a high five, which helps the octopuses recognize each other.
Octopus has many hearts
The octopus has three hearts. His heart pumped blue-green blood.
They use copper as an oxygen-carrying molecule instead of iron, which makes our blood red.
They can be scary
Octopuses can change colors and patterns. When an aggressive male octopus is about to attack another octopus, he will often look dark, rise from the bottom of the sea, and stretch out his arms in such a way as to increase his body size.
Sometimes he would lift his coat, the entire back of his body, over his head. It's nicknamed the "nosferatu" pose because of its resemblance to a vampire's posture.
Having no skeleton gives them an advantage
An octopus can fit through a hole the size of its eyeball and change its shape almost indefinitely.
Not having a skeleton or shell is unusual for an animal of the size and complexity of an octopus.
This quality makes them more vulnerable to predators on one level, but also allows them to hide.
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