Shoots ink. Has eight arms. Highly intelligent. Can you think of another animal as bizarre and fascinating as the common octopus?
It’s hard to believe the common octopus is a distant cousin of the clam. Weird. Here’s my top 3 list of other weird factoids:
- It shoots ink. Craziness. The common octopus, like most cephalopods (a class of animals which includes the squid) is equipped with special ink sacs located between its gills. When it’s threatened, the octopus shoots out a cloud of ink to confuse and disorient potential predators.
- It’s basically one big blob of gushiness. The common octopus has only one hard part in its body: the beak. The rest of the octopus is soft, squishy tissue. Because of this, a three-foot-long octopus can squeeze its body into incredibly tight places.
- A female octopus can lay up to 400,000 eggs! She will protect her brood for several months and sadly (excuse me while I shed a tear) she usually dies shortly after.
Now it’s your turn. Do some research and see if you can come up with a few more strange superlatives of the common octopus!
The Common Octopus, or “octopus vulgaris” is a mollusk in the Class “cephalopoda” and is related to the squids and the clams.
It can be found in the tropical and temperate waters of the world’s oceans, in habitats such as seagrass beds and coral reefs.
The common octopus prefers to eat crabs, small lobsters and other mollusks.
Chew on this:
The common octopus is one weird creature. Although it’s related to the clam, it happens to be highly intelligent. The octopus has been known to have a remarkable memory and even solve complex problems like figuring out how to open a jar with its 8 arms. Good thing too, because this crab is putting up quite a fight!
Coming soon
