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Eight Arms, No Ears

March 29, 2018

It’s a bird, it’s a plane … no, it’s a cirrate octopus that was spotted swimming past the viewport of the human-occupied deep-sea submersible Alvin in 1976. Cirrate octopuses have fins on the sides of their heads that look a little like ears. They are sometimes called dumbo octopuses, after the big-eared flying elephant in a Disney movie. In February 2018, a team of international researchers, for the first time ever, had the rare opportunity of observing and filming another type of dumbo octopus—measuring just a few centimeters—as it hatched from its egg. (Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Archives)