Dumbo octopuses are named for the elephant-like feathers they use to sail the deep sea, but until recently, when and how they developed these flexible appendages. Now, for the first time, researchers have captured a newborn Dumbo octopus on tape. As reported in the magazine Conventional biology, they discovered that the creatures are equipped with the wings from the moment they cry.
The study’s co-author Tim Shank, a researcher at the Woods Hole Institute of Marine Science in Massachusetts, saw the octopus in 2005. During a research trip in the Atlantic Ocean, one of the vehicles he was working on assembled several branches. coral with something strange. attached to them. It looked like a bunch of sand-colored golf balls at first, but then he realized it was an egg sack.
He and his co-researchers eventually named the breast that emerged as a member of the genus Grimpoteuthis. In other words, it was a Dumbo octopus, although they could not determine the exact species. But you wouldn’t need a biology degree to resemble the famous Disney elephant, as you can see in the video below.
The octopus was born with a set of action wings that allowed it to swim around and hunt instantly, and an MRI scan revealed fully developed organs and a complex nervous system. As the researchers wrote in their study, Dumbo octopuses are coming into the world as “capable juveniles” ready to jump straight into adult life.
Grimpoteuthis spending his life in the deep ocean, which makes it difficult to study. Scientists hope it will be easier to report new findings Grimpoteuthis eggs and hatchlings for future research.