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While octopuses generally avoid humans, attacks have occasionally been verified. For example, a 240-centimeter (8-foot) Pacific octopus, said to be nearly perfectly camouflaged, approached a diver and attempted to wrap itself around the diver and his camera. Another diver recorded the encounter on video.
An octopus (pl.: octopuses or octopodes [a]) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (/ ɒ k ˈ t ɒ p ə d ə /, ok-TOP-ə-də [3]).The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids.
Both octopuses and squids have mantles (referenced above) which function towards respiration and locomotion in the form of jetting. The composition of these mantles differs between the two families, however. In octopuses, the mantle is made up of three muscle types: longitudinal, radial, and circular.
Certain squid species possess a tail, which is an extension of the body past the fins. [5] The tail may be said to start at "the point where a hypothetical line, continuous with the broad posterior edge of the fin, crosses the midline of the body". [ 1 ]
The octopuses seen in the videos threw silt, shells, and algae at other nearby octopuses. To do so, they gathered up the debris underneath their bodies using their arms.
Giant Pacific octopuses are able to recognise individual humans [66] and common octopuses can recognise other octopus individuals for at least one day. [ 67 ] In a study on social learning, common octopuses (observers) were allowed to watch other octopuses (demonstrators) select one of two objects that differed only in colour.
Believe it or not, octopuses could be the ones to dominate Earth after humans. Scientists have recently made a riveting claim that these eight-limbed, marine invertebrates could become the ...
If the octopus is cornered and touched, it may bite and envenomate its attacker. [20] Estimates of the number of recorded human fatalities caused by blue-ringed octopuses vary, ranging from seven to sixteen deaths; most scholars agree that there have been at least eleven. [21] Tetrodotoxin can be found in nearly every organ and gland of its body.