The latest research aims to thoroughly investigate how wild octopuses utilize their arms within their natural environments. This pioneering study correlates arm movements to the entire animal in intricate, real-world contexts by examining arm dynamics across various settings. The results indicate that all arms are capable of executing all types of actions, yet a distinct pattern of arm specialization was evident. The front arms primarily engage in movements that aid in exploration, whereas the rear arms focus on facilitating locomotion. Additionally, the octopus displayed remarkable adaptability, with a single arm executing multiple actions simultaneously, showcasing coordination among different arms—signifying advanced motor control.
Illustrations of 12 arm actions from various wild octopus behaviors. These cephalopods frequently employ multiple arm actions at once, either on one arm or across several. Image credits: Venice et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-10674-y.
The structure of an octopus arm is intricate, comprising four distinct muscle groups oriented horizontally, vertically, diagonally, and circularly around a central nerve.
This arrangement allows the octopus’s arms to adapt in numerous ways, enabling a variety of actions essential for tasks such as hunting, locomotion, and self-defense.
Despite this complexity, there is still a limited understanding of how wild octopuses utilize and modify their arms.
In this new study, Chelsea Venice and her colleagues at Florida Atlantic University analyzed 25-minute video recordings of wild octopuses filmed in the Atlantic and Caribbean between 2007 and 2015.
The observed octopuses belonged to the species Octopus vulgaris or closely related species such as Octopus insularis and Octopus americanus.
The researchers documented which arms were used each time an octopus exhibited one of 15 distinct behaviors (like crawling).
They also noted the combinations of 12 different arm actions (e.g., curling) and four distinct deformations (e.g., extension) executed by each arm during these activities.
Researchers found that every octopus is capable of transforming all eight arms in four diverse ways, enabling every arm to perform all actions.
The study revealed that both sides of the body utilize arms equally, although the front four arms are more actively engaged than the rear four (64% versus 36%).
The front arms are primarily employed for exploring, while the rear arms primarily assist in movement.
Consequently, two actions are notably more frequent with the rear arms: rolling, where the arm glides along the seabed akin to a conveyor belt, and lifting, where the arm extends vertically downwards.
“Our findings are among the first to demonstrate that octopuses utilize specific limbs for designated tasks—a behavior previously only documented in primates, rodents, and fish,” stated the researchers.
“These discoveries could inform advancements in robotic arms designed to replicate the functionality of the octopus.”
This study was published this week in the journal Scientific Reports.
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Co Bennice et al. 2025. The flexibility of the octopus arm enhances complex behavior across various natural environments. Sci Rep 15, 31875; doi:10.1038/s41598-025-10674-y
Historically, the brain was not always recognized as the center of thought. In ancient Egypt, it was believed that the heart held intellect and the soul, resulting in the preservation of the heart in mummified bodies, while the brain was discarded.
In the 5th century B.C., Greek scholar Alcmaion of Croton made claims about the brain, but two centuries later, Aristotle still upheld the belief that the heart was the seat of intelligence.
Octopuses are an interesting example, as about two-thirds of their neurons are found in their tentacles, allowing for semi-independent responses to stimuli. This challenges the idea of a central location for thought.
Advancements in AI models, like ChatGPT, show that conscious thought can be produced without physical sense organs, resembling human thought processes.
While modern neuroscience confirms that the brain controls perception, thinking, and language, cultural and religious beliefs can shape ideas about consciousness and its origins.
In various indigenous cultures, consciousness is often associated with spirits or ancestors, separate from the physical body. Sensations like hunger and pain also demonstrate that thought is not solely contained in the brain.
If our brains and stomachs were reversed, we might view conscious thought as originating in the stomach, with the head serving as a sensory and input location.
This article explores the question of whether we would “think from our stomachs” if our brains were located there, reflecting on the nature of consciousness.
If you have any questions, please email us at: questions@sciencefocus.com or reach out to us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
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Its mauve, suction cup-covered arms gently unfold to grab an egg shaped like an elongated ping-pong ball. A jet of water from a siphon next to the octopus's head ensures that the unhatched cubs get enough oxygen.
From a distance, she is surrounded by hundreds of females, living up to her nickname. The pearl octopus (Muusoctopus robotus) resembles a spherical gem that sits on the ocean floor. This is the largest known assemblage of eight-armed molluscs on Earth, numbering approximately 20,000 individuals, and has been witnessed by people all over the world in astonishingly high resolution. “Oceans” episode BBC series Planet Earth III.
This view would have been amazing enough even if it were from shallow water, including tropical coral reefs and kelp forests. But these octopus mothers tend to their eggs in freezing cold and darkness, about 2 miles below the surface. of the deep sea.
“The fact that there is life there is amazing in itself,” says the producer and director. Will Ridgeon They spent two years photographing the octopus, collaborating with scientists and technicians at California's Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).
The aptly named pearl octopus rears its eggs in an octopus garden surrounded by flower-like anemones. – Credit: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
The octopus farm, as the site is now known, is located on a hill in the eastern Pacific Ocean, 160 km (100 miles) southwest of Monterey Bay, near a giant underwater mountain called Davidson Seamount. This place was discovered during his expedition in 2018. live streamed over the internet.
It was the first time I had ever seen so many creatures in one place, let alone in the deep sea. (Octopuses are notoriously solitary animals and tend to be cannibalistic when kept together in captivity.) ).
Ridgeon watched the livestream of the discovery and immediately knew it was a story to be filmed in a new BBC series.he teamed up with Dr. Jim Barrya senior scientist at MBARI, began regularly visiting octopus farms in 2019 to learn more about why so many octopuses congregate in certain areas.
“The question is, why is it there?” Barry says. Barry and his colleagues gathered specialized tools and began a series of detailed studies. They created a photomosaic of his 2.5-hectare (about 27,000 square feet2) portion of the property and stitched together high-resolution images that allowed them to count the octopus population.
They also installed time-lapse cameras on the ocean floor, taking close-up photos every 20 minutes at a time for months to show what the octopuses were doing, and Barry's team gradually expanded the octopus park's largest began to unravel some of the mysteries.
Octopus farm location. – Image credit: MBARI
work remotely
Ridgeon took part in an expedition to an octopus farm early on. Initially, filming took place during lockdown, so he participated via live video link from his bedroom in Bristol, England (with occasional interruptions from his five-year-old daughter).
Once COVID-19 restrictions allowed, Ridgeon joined Barry and his team aboard MBARI's vessel, the research vessel Western Flyer. However, no one visited the octopus farm directly. All surveys and filming were done using a car-sized remotely operated vehicle (ROV) equipped with a camera and a robotic arm.
The dive began around 6 a.m., and the ROV was lowered into the ocean through a hole in the Western Flyer's hull called the moonpool. “It's very James Bond,” Ridgeon says. The descent to the octopus garden can take up to two hours, and the ROV will remain there all day.
The pilot controls the ROV via a cable connected to a control room on the ship on the ground, and everyone watches the video feed to see what's happening below.
Researchers survey the octopus farm from the Western Flyer's ROV control room. – Credit: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
“You forget you're looking at a screen,” Ridgeon says. “You think you're there,” says the MBARI engineer. He worked with the BBC to find the ideal camera setup to photograph the octopus garden. It was not possible to use footage from a camera fixed to the ROV due to too much vibration.
“I think the BBC will do a little bit about that.” [shivering]“But not as much as we had,” Barry says. ROVs “shudder” not because of the cold temperatures of the deep ocean, but because the thrusters must be activated constantly to ensure they stay close to the ocean floor (ROVs are positively buoyant, so if they fail they will ). .
To get around this, Barry and Ridgeon used a separate 4K camera mounted on a specially designed stand that could be placed on the ocean floor.
“I think that's the secret behind the images,” Ridgeon says. Unlike the ROV cameras used by scientists, which can only reach within a few meters of objects on the ocean floor, the 4K camera's focal length of about 20 centimeters (7 to 8 inches) allows it to precisely navigate between octopuses. can be captured.
But it was difficult to use. It took up to 40 minutes to get into position, and the team had to hope it wouldn't fall over and the action would happen in front of it. Ridgeon operated the camera from the ship using his PlayStation controller, which MBARI engineers adapted for the job. “At first it's like trying to film him with his hands tied behind his back,” Ridgeon said.
Another challenge with deep-sea photography is light. “Put the light as far away from the camera as possible, ideally around the sides so it’s three-quarters backlit. [the scene]That way, there are no reflections from any debris in the water,” explains Ridgeon.
The octopus garden provides insight into the life and reproduction of molluscs. – Credit: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Those “fragments” are marine snow. These are organic particles that constantly rain down from the shallow ocean above. Marine snow is made up of dead plankton and their feces stuck together by microbial glue, and is the main food source for deep-sea animals. However, it makes filming difficult as the movie can look like it was shot in a snowstorm.
To see through the snowstorm and achieve the desired three-quarters backlighting effect, the MBARI team built a lighting system that the ROV could hold on its side, away from the camera. “That's how we got some really great shots,” Barry says.
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Accelerate development
As Barry's investigation and BBC filming progressed, the team made some surprising discoveries. First, no medium-sized octopus ever visited this location, and there were no signs of it feeding. It was only a fully grown adult octopus.
They were here to breed and for no other purpose. It may be called an octopus farm, but this place is definitely an octopus farm. The researchers also collected evidence that incubating females use on-site hot springs to speed up the development of their offspring.
For octopuses, there is a strong relationship between temperature and hatching time. The colder it is, the longer it will take and the more dangerous it will be. This is because there are scavengers that prey on unborn, unprotected octopus eggs.
Temperature studies have shown that the seawater surrounding each octopus nest can reach 10°C (50°F), much warmer than the 1.6°C (34°F) seawater just a few meters away. It was shown. By observing specific octopuses (identifiable by scratch and scar patterns) in the field, Barry and his colleagues determined that their eggs take an average of 1.8 years to hatch.
During this time, the female does not move but is constantly fighting off predators and guarding her approximately 60 eggs. “Once you plant an egg on a rock, that's it. You can't leave that spot,” Barry says. At just under two years, it's not the longest parenting period for an octopus. This record is given to another species that other MBARI scientists discovered nearby, Graneledon boreopafica, clinging to the sides of Monterey She Canyon 1.4 km (just under a mile) deep. I did.
Researchers watched one female incubate her eggs for four and a half years, longer than any other recorded animal. However, she was growing her eggs in water that was much warmer than the octopus park's ambient temperature of 1.6 degrees Celsius. Without the hot springs, the eggs in the octopus garden would take more than 10 years to hatch. When this site was discovered, biologists were surprised to find octopuses nesting there.
But geologists were fascinated by warm water seeping through the ocean floor, something they had never seen before. These springs are much cooler than the red-hot hydrothermal vents that form at the edges of tectonic plates where new molten ocean floors are created.
Although the enormous pressure will not cause the water to boil, the temperature around the vent can reach hundreds of degrees. These were first discovered in his 1970s, and plumes of hydrothermal water rise up to hundreds of meters in the water column, making them relatively easy to detect with temperature probes. In contrast, hot springs are more difficult to find because they form away from these tectonically active regions and have much cooler temperatures.
But geologists believe they could exist in the thousands and are highly stable, likely remaining in the same location for hundreds or even thousands of years. Therefore, biologists believe that more octopus farms may be established around these springs.
birth and death
In the final scene of the “Octopus Garden” episode Planet Earth III, a cluster of tiny sucker-like arms appears beneath the brooding female, then a wobbling young octopus swims away into the darkness like a mini-umbrella. More chicks follow and begin life at sea.
No one knows where they're going…yet. “That's what I want to understand next,” Barry says. The hatchlings are large for a newborn octopus, at about 6 cm (2 inches), so they have the best chance of survival. But as anyone who has seen the Octopus documentary knows, this comes at a heavy cost to mothers.
“These mothers are trying so hard to protect their bloodlines, and they're just dying out,” Barry says. Her father died a few years ago, shortly after mating. On the screen, we see the women's eyes cloudy and their bodies wrinkled. Ridgeon saw what happened next, but she decided it was not suitable for an evening television audience.
Dead octopuses are quickly attacked by scavengers such as fish, snails, sea anemones, and shrimp. For Barry, this is another important part of his discovery at the octopus farm. The nesting season is asynchronous, with octopuses hatching and mothers dying throughout the year. Approximately 9 each day. The female octopus' body nourishes the rest of the ecosystem and helps supplement the energy input from marine snow by 72 percent.
Graneledon boreopafica (a species of octopus that incubates eggs in cold water) has a 4.5 year rearing period, which holds the record for the longest rearing period of any animal. – Credit: Alamy
“This is clearly a huge food subsidy for the local ecosystem,” Barry says. “That wouldn't happen in shallow water,” he added. Because there is a lot of food around. But in the more barren depths, nothing goes to waste.
The BBC has finished filming at the octopus farm, but Barry's research continues. One of the things he wants to know is the age of the sea anemone. These are giant orange flower-like animals that make the octopus garden look like a real garden.
Barry studies sea anemones, which live for decades in shallow coastal waters, and finds that deep-sea species can survive for centuries, in contrast to octopuses, which are relatively short-lived. That's what I'm thinking.
“They're like sentinels that just sit there while the octopus cycles,” he says. There are many more questions Barry would like to answer. “Are octopuses confined to this breeding form in warm areas, or are they able to breed elsewhere with cooler ambient temperatures? Is there fidelity to specific nest sites? ?Will they return to their place of birth?'' he asks.
No one knows how far the octopuses travel before they reach the garden or how they found them, but Barry said he was surprised by the large number of dead and dying octopuses floating around. I suspect I smelled it. “We'll definitely be back,” he says.
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