Mime of eight tentacles

2001/08/30 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Zoologia
• Ozeanografia

Surprisingly, in all the photos you can see the same animal. However, success is not easy. It is clear that it lives in the sea, but in a photo it is shaped like fish, in another it seems like a snake... What is it really?

Well, although you think we are in joke, it is a octopus. Special octopus, according, but definitively octopus. They live on the Pacific Ocean Indian seabed and there appear to be several species. In normal conditions they have longer tentacles and white-red stripes than the body, but when it detects that there is some predator around, they can stretch the limbs, flatten the body, change color and use many other tricks to shape other animals and confuse the enemy.

In addition, we must recognize that in this task they are true specialists. Depending on the predators circulating in the area, they imitate some animal: large crab, sea serpents, marine anemones, jellyfish, rays, etc.

Mark Norman is a biologist specializing in cephalopods who works at the Melbourne Museum in Australia. Together with several companions, he got into the water and took pictures of this octopus that still has no name. These images were exhibited last year and now, in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, on 7 September, the scientific information received will be released.