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New Octopus-Inspired Adhesive Grips Slippery Objects With Ease Even Underwater

Whether you want to hold onto rough or soft jelly-like surfaces, this adhesive has got your back.

Octopuses hunt with fish and punch them when they don't contribute

Octopuses are getting more and more interesting with each new study.

The oceans are getting so hot it's harming octopus vision

The oceans are becoming one big soup.

Octopus sleep is very similar to that of humans and they may even dream

Study looks at electrical signals octopuses produce in their brain while asleep and awake.

World’s first octopus farm is moving ahead despite grave scientific concern

They’ve never been commercially farmed before, so there are no welfare rules in place.

The most detailed-ever atlas of the octopus visual system shows the differences and similarities when compared with humans

It can be hard to believe that boneless sea creatures share traits with us -- but they do!

Newly discovered fossil shows the octopus came before the dinosaur

It's small, it has ten arms, suckers and fin

Fossil Friday: ancient cephalopod is the first of its kind to sport 10 arms

This specimen pushes the history of squids, cuttlefish, and octopi back by over 80 million years.

Lobsters, octopuses and crabs recognized as "sentient" in the UK

It's just a step away from banning inhumane practices in the restaurant and fishing industries.

The iconic 'Dumbo' octopus stars in the deepest-ever octopus sighting

It's the deepest confirmed sighting of any cephalopod.

MDMA or 'ecstasy' makes octopuses more social, too

This could help scientists uncover the origin of social behavior in all animals.

Researchers develop octopus skin-inspired infrared camouflage

The advancement could help hide objects from heat sensors.

The mysterious deep-sea Dumbo octopus hatchlings look just like adults [with video]

These hatchlings emerge fully-formed, ready to take on the world from day one.b

Artificial camouflage skin mimics the octopus' unparalleled morphing

The amazing camo-skin was funded by the military and could one day make its way into the battlefield.

Biologists just discovered an underwater octopus city -- they call it Octlantis

Ever wondered what an octopus city looks like?

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.

The best-fossilized octopus we've ever found gets recreated in 3D to understand their evolution

They changed surprisingly little.

This oddball octopus mates with its mouth and is actually social

Octopuses are like aliens and there are few creatures weirder than these eight legged critters. They survive freezing waters, perceive light through their skin, are masters of camouflage and can do many other things, some still oblivious to science. One uncanny feature of octopuses is their mating behavior or social order. Most octopus species mate at a distance, with the male using its reproductive arm to reach the female's mantle. They have to do this to avoid being cannibalized by the female. Either way, once the job is done, the male dies while females only lives a little longer, just enough to lay the eggs. That's the peak of both the octopus' sex and social life. Besides a few instances, octopuses live their lives in isolation, alone in some shell or barren rock. However, there's one octopus that seems to be totally different, even human-like: the Larger Pacific Striped Octopus.

Octopus genome finally unraveled, and this is a big deal

The mystery of the octopus genome has finally been solved, and this will allow researchers to answer some intriguing questions: how does it regenerate so well? How does it control its 8 flexible arms and over 1000 suckers? How do they camouflage and mimic the environment, and most importantly - how did a relative of the snail become so incredibly smart?

Octopus is so cute that 'Adorable' might become its name

Among the best thing about being a biologist is you get to name things when you discover it. Now, a marine researcher in California will name one of the cutest invertebrates we've ever seen: so adorable, that it might actually be named 'adorabilis'.

More than meets the eye: Octopus can perceive light directly through its skin

Biologists have long suspected that cephalopods like the squid and cuttlefish have specialized proteins embedded in their skin, very similar to those found in the eye, which they can use to perceive light, and maybe even colour. Where previously attempts failed, a team at University of California at Santa Barbara now offers conclusive evidence that octopuses can 'see' with their skin. Namely, they can definitely perceive light characteristics like wavelengths, brightness and such, but not edges or contrast. So, you might as well add full body vision to the list of awesome octopus features: master of disguise, elegance in chaos, survival in sub-freezing Antarctic temperatures or special untangling switches. But hey, who's counting anymore. As much as octopuses are weird, they're just as fascinating!

The seemingly chaotic, but elegant movement of the octopus: how it pulls it off

Despite lacking a rigid skeleton, octopuses have a remarkable coordinated locomotion. Using high-speed cameras, a group at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem found the octopus achieves this by precisely and independently moving one or more of its eight legs to crawl its body, even when its facing a different direction. Moreover, there is no discernible rhythm or pattern to this undulating leg movement, making the octopus unique in this respect. It's controlled chaos, and only the octopus itself completely knows how it pulls all this off.

How Antarctic octopuses survive in freezing waters

Octopus species that live in ice-cold Antarctic waters employ an unique strategy to transport oxygen to its tissue and survive, according to German researchers. The study suggests the octopuses' specialized pigments, analogous to hemoglobin in vertebrates, are in higher concentration in the Antarctic region than in warmer waters. This would help to explain why octopuses are more adapted to climate change and warming waters

"I wanted to take a picture of an octopus... but the octopus took pictures of me"

How the tables have turned! While documenting the experiments conducted on campus, Benjamin Savard, a digital media producer at Middlebury College, wanted to take some underwater pictures of an octopus. But the octopus had other plans. It grabbed the camera and turned it on Savard, who posted the photos and GIF of the entire sequence on Reddit.   “I […]

Why octupus arms never get entangled

Roboticists and mechanical engineers hold octopuses to great respect and admiration because of their many skills, like great water propulsion, camouflage and independent limbs. Each octopus tentacle is equipped with numerous suckers that allows it to easily cling to most surfaces, no matter how smooth they may be. Whether the octopus needs to attach itself […]

Squishy robot camouflages itself effortlessly and blends in [VIDEO]

After UAVs inspired by hawks, robotic stability control spun from leaping lizards, wall climbing derived from geckos or the swimming artificial jellyfish made from rat cells,  in yet another remarkable feat of robotics which draws inspiration from nature scientists at Harvard University  have created a robot which mixes the blending capabilities of a squid with the locomotion […]

The fish that mimics the mimicking octopus

Off the coast of Sulawesi in Indonesia, dwells the Thaumoctopus mimicus commonly refered to as the mimic octopus, a remarkable animal capable of changing its shape and size to take the form of a jellyfish, a lion fish or even a crab or shrimp, among many other, for both protection against predators and as a shrewd […]

Octomom gives birth to thousands of octopus sons - all caught on tape

Giving birth is definitely not something you see everyday, but an octopus giving birth – that’s something you may never see. However, thanks to the Steinhart Aquarium at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, you get a chance to see just that: a species of Caribbean Octopus vulgaris giving birth. They took the […]

The octopus and the beer bottle

Someone’s thrash is another one’s treasure – this old saying has an entirely different meaning for an octopus. The little guy found a beer bottle on the seafloor, and it’s just big enough that it can squeeze in and out – though why you would want to come out of a beer bottle after you […]

Octopus with venom that works in freezing temperatures discovered

Boy, you just can’t have enough octopus, that’s for sure – they’re really amazing creatures, that often surprise us. Now, a venomous octopus living in the frozen waters of Antarctica is definitely awesome, but how is this useful? Well, according to Bryan Fry, of the University of Melbourne, it is. He and his team have […]

The March award for awesome animal goes to THE MIMIC OCTOPUS

The mimic octopus, Thaumoctopus mimicus is a species of octopus that grows up to 60 cm (2 feet) in length and is naturally colored with brown and white stripes and spots. So what’s so special about it? The mimic octopus can literally mimic the physical appearance and movement of fifteen different species, that we know of […]

Stunning variety of sea life found in Antarctica

The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) published some quite awesome pictures showing that Antarctica isn’t the lifeless frozen wasteland most people believe it to be; ice fish, octopus, sea pigs, giant sea spiders, rare rays and gorgeous basket stars all thrive in the extreme temperatures in Antarctica’s waters. Well, thrive is perhaps a too strong word, […]