Octopus is a strange animal that lives in the ocean.
Octopus is a sea animal that draws the attention of people because of its strange appearance. Let’s find out more about it!
- Octopuses have 8 arms and 8 bulbous heads.
- Some people call their arms tentacles, but that’s wrong.
- The arms seem to have a mind of their own since 2/3 of an octopus’ neurons are in its arms rather than its head.
- Also, they have 3 hearts!
- One pumps blood through its organ.
- The rest pump blood through its gills.
- Their blood is not red, but blue.
- The colored blue blood of the octopuses is because of a protein named hemocyanin.
- When they sense a predator they squirt ink in order to protect themselves.
- The ink will temporarily blind and confuse the attacker.
- They belong in the order of Octapoda.
- The word octopus is derived from Latin and ancient Greek.
- Octo means eight in modern greek.
- Octopus means eight feet in greek.
- The giant Pacific octopus is considered to be the largest known octopus species.
- Adults usually weigh around 15 kg.
- The smallest species is Octopus wolfi.
- It is around 2.5 cm and weighs less than 1 g.
- Octopuses can feel anything since they have a wonderful sense of touch.
- Actually, their suckers have receptors that enable an octopus to taste what it is touching.
- The majority of octopuses have internal neither skeletons nor protective shells.
- Their bodies are soft.
- This makes them able to squeeze into small cracks and crevices.
- Octopuses have powerful jaws and venomous saliva.
- Octopuses used to have hard shells a long time ago.
- They lost them during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.
- When an octopus is swimming, the organ that delivers blood to the organs stops beating.
- Octopuses prefer to crawl, rather than swimming.
- Most of the octopuses live near the water’s surface in shells, reefs, and crevices.
- These are called pelagic.
- Octopuses like to be left alone.
- But sometimes they “hang out” with other octopuses.
- Octopuses can also change color to hide and match their surroundings.
- They can turn blue, gray, pink, brown or green.
- Octopuses are carnivores.
- They prefer clams, shrimp, lobsters, fish, sharks, and even birds.
- The way octopuses catch their prey and eat is by dropping down on their prey, enveloping it with their arms and pulling the animal into their mouth.
- Some species live around 6 months and some other 5 years.
- Mating and reproduction is fatal for them because soon after they mate, they die.
- Females usually lay 200,000 to 400,000 eggs, which they guard very carefully.
- Sometimes they even stop eating.
- By the time the eggs are ready to hatch males have swum away and are ready to die after a few months.
- Baby octopuses are called larvae.
- The oldest octopus fossil that has been discovered is from an animal that lived 296 million years ago.
- This is millions of years before the dinosaurs lived.
