homehome Home chatchat Notifications


Thought octopuses only live in water? Watch David Attenborough explain how the only land octopus hunts

If you thought octopuses were amazing, wait 'till you see this.

Tibi Puiu
July 28, 2017 @ 4:31 pm

share Share

octopus-land

Credit: Youtube / BBC Earth.

Octopuses are some of the most amazing creatures out there. They have three hearts, use tools, and they’re some of the most masterful camouflagers. Out of all octopus trivia, however, you most likely consider the fact that these animals live in water boring and not worth mentioning. But that’s not even entirely true. One particular species called Abdopus aculeatus is actually adapted to living on land and even walks using the hundreds of tiny sucklers that line its eight, venomous arms.

Abdopus aculeatus is an intertidal octopus described from the Philippines and common throughout Indonesia and northeastern Australia. This small species of octopus mainly forages for portunid and calappid crabs, sometimes crawling or swimming approximately 3–5 m to catch one. When tides are low, this octopus can become stranded in puddles. But that’s not much of a problem as A. aculeatus literally walks from puddle to puddle looking for a delicious crab morsel.

Ever resourceful, this amazing octopus’ behavior was caught on film by the BBC Earth crew which aired a brief documentary about it, with the one and only Sir David Attenborough narrating.

share Share

Scientists Hacked the Glue Gun Design to Print Bone Scaffolds Directly into Broken Legs (And It Works)

Researchers designed a printer to extrude special bone grafts directly into fractures during surgery.

How Much Does a Single Cell Weigh? The Brilliant Physics Trick of Weighing Something Less Than a Trillionth of a Gram

Scientists have found ingenious ways to weigh the tiniest building blocks of life

A Long Skinny Rectangular Telescope Could Succeed Where the James Webb Fails and Uncover Habitable Worlds Nearby

A long, narrow mirror could help astronomers detect life on nearby exoplanets

Scientists Found That Bending Ice Makes Electricity and It May Explain Lightning

Ice isn't as passive as it looks.

The Crystal Behind Next Gen Solar Panels May Transform Cancer and Heart Disease Scans

Tiny pixels can save millions of lives and make nuclear medicine scans affordable for both hospitals and patients.

Satellite data shows New York City is still sinking -- and so are many big US cities

No, it’s not because of the recent flooding.

How Bees Use the Sun for Navigation Even on Cloudy Days

Bees see differently than humans, for them the sky is more than just blue.

Scientists Quietly Developed a 6G Chip Capable of 100 Gbps Speeds

A single photonic chip for all future wireless communication.

This Teen Scientist Turned a $0.50 Bar of Soap Into a Cancer-Fighting Breakthrough and Became ‘America’s Top Young Scientist’

Heman's inspiration for his invention came from his childhood in Ethiopia, where he witnessed the dangers of prolonged sun exposure.

Pluto's Moons and Everything You Didn't Know You Want to Know About Them

Let's get acquainted with the lesser known but still very interesting moons of Pluto.