Mollusks, features and articles | Educational Science

Jan 16, 2022

Rare octopus video shows 'once-in-a-lifetime encounter'

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...

May 10, 2022

'Mind-boggling' scrambled genome found in octopus and squid. It could explain their smarts.

Squid, octopus and cuttlefish have scrambled-up genomes that may help explain how these cephalopods evolved the most complicated nervous systems of any invertebrate. New genetic sequencing reveals that these animals' genes are mixed up, arranged in strange orders not seen in other, non-cephalopod species. This DNA mixing and matching may...

May 11, 2022

How do octopuses change color?

Octopuses might be nature's ultimate weirdos: They have squishy bodies that can squeeze through tiny cracks; eight sucker-covered arms that can be regrown; three hearts that pump blue blood (rich in copper) through their veins; and massive, donut-shaped brains that give them superior intelligence compared with other invertebrates. But octopuses'...

May 18, 2022

Octopuses torture and eat themselves after mating. Science finally knows why.

Many animal species die after they reproduce. But in octopus mothers, this decline is particularly alarming: In most species, as an octopus mother's eggs get close to hatching, she stops eating. She then leaves her protective huddle over her brood and becomes bent on self-destruction. She might beat herself against...

Oct 14, 2022

Antarctic Octopus's 'Blue Blood' Helps It Survive in Frigid Waters

Octopuses in Antarctica survive subzero temperatures because of blue pigment in their blood, a new study finds. The ice-cold temperatures in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica range between 28.8 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 1.8 degrees Celsius) to 35.6 degrees F (2 degrees C). In such frigid conditions, animals have a harder...

Oct 14, 2022

Octopuses Have Moves, But No Rhythm

Octopuses move with a simple elegance, but they have no rhythm, according to new research. Each of an octopus's eight arms is soft, flexible and muscular, and acts like it has an infinite number of joints, said the study's lead author, Guy Levy, a postdoctoral researcher of neurobiology at the...

Oct 14, 2022

Rare Kissing Octopus Unveiled For the First Time

Scientists are unveiling a rare octopus that has never been on public display before. And unlike other octopuses, where females have a nasty habit of eating their partners during sex, Larger Pacific Striped Octopuses mate by pressing their beaks and suckers against each other in an intimate embrace. The beautiful...

Oct 14, 2022

Octopus Gets Mental Workout with Hamster Ball

Humans aren't the only species that need a mental workout. It turns out that octopuses need to flex their eight-limbed brain cells, too. An amazing new video shows an octopus at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco solving a puzzle to get at tasty shrimp inside a hamster...

Oct 14, 2022

Octopuses Are Surprisingly Social — and Confrontational, Scientists Find

Octopuses are well-known masters of camouflage and skillful escape artists, but they aren't exactly famous for their social skills. Scientists have long thought that this many-armed denizen of the deep was strictly solitary and didn't interact much with its fellows, reserving its color-shifting ability for intimidating predators — or hiding...

Nov 10, 2022

Octopuses fling shells and sand at each other, and scientists caught their battles on video

It's no wonder that, with so many arms, octopuses turn out to be great pitchers. They can even target other octopuses with bits of seafloor debris — and score a direct hit. For the first time, researchers have observed the famously brainy cephalopods deliberately hurling clumps of sand, bits of...

Nov 14, 2022

Octopuses may be so terrifyingly smart because they share humans' genes for intelligence

Octopuses are brainy creatures with sophisticated smarts, and now scientists have uncovered a clue that may partly explain the cephalopods' remarkable intelligence: Its genes have a genetic quirk that is also seen in humans, a new study finds. The clues that scientists uncovered are called jumping genes, or transposons, and...

Nov 14, 2022

Octopus facts

Octopuses are ocean creatures that are most famous for having eight arms and bulbous heads. Some other fun facts: They have three hearts and blue blood; they squirt ink to deter predators; and being boneless, they can squeeze into (or out of) tight spaces. They are quite intelligent and have...

Nov 28, 2022

Octopuses may be terrifically smart because of this genetic quirk they share with humans

Octopuses may have gained some of their exceptional intelligence from the same evolutionary process that humans went through, a new study suggests. The process involved a sudden explosion of microRNAs (miRNAs) — small, noncoding molecules that control how genes are expressed. This increase may have helped the brains of octopuses...

Mar 4, 2023

How many hearts does an octopus have?

Octopuses are iconic for their eight arms. But how many hearts does an octopus have? It turns out that an octopus has three hearts, Kirt Onthank, an octopus biologist at Walla Walla University in Washington, told Live Science. The same holds true for their closest relatives, squid and cuttlefish. The...

Mar 27, 2023

Blue-ringed octopus, one of the most toxic animals on Earth, bites woman multiple times

A woman in Australia was recently bitten multiple times by a blue-ringed octopus — one of the world's most toxic animals — and lived to tell the tale. Blue-ringed octopuses are a group comprising four species: the greater blue-ringed octopus (Hapalochlaena lunulata), the southern blue-ringed octopus (Hapalochlaena maculosa), the blue-lined...