Ninety-sixopus
Posted by Ross Rosenberg
At the Shima Marineland Aquarium is housed the preserved body of one of the most terrifying creatures the world has ever known. This Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris) weighed seven pounds and measured three feet long when it was captured in 1998 in Matoya Bay. It also had ninety six arms.
Instances of octopuses with extra arms have been noted but few, if any, reach anything approaching this number. The octopus had eight main arms that branched off into separate bundles of multiple arms. It has been suggested that the extra arms may be the result of abnormal regeneration from suffering multiple injuries.
Also rare among octopuses is that this one laid eggs in captivity in the five months before it died. The octopuses that hatched from the eggs all had the normal number of arms, but all died in captivity.
Mutant octopus [Shima Marineland Aquarium] : Pink Tentacle : Thanks, Mable!
Categories: Cephalopods, Octopus, Rail
Posted at 1:20 pm on July 18, 2008
18 Comments -
MY GOD!!!!! EIGHT MAN ARMS THAT BRANCH OFF INTO SEPERATE BUNDLES OF MULTI ARMS????!!!
TRULY TERRIFYING, INDEED!!!!
Comment by BobDog — July 18, 2008 @ 1:49 pm
How lovely. All octopuses need to have more than 8 arms.
Comment by Molly Ren — July 18, 2008 @ 2:58 pm
Awesome.
Comment by OctoGirlie — July 18, 2008 @ 3:15 pm
I, for one, welcome my new nonsextopus masters.
Comment by chesh — July 18, 2008 @ 3:26 pm
WTF!! Nonsextopus? Explain, please.
Comment by BobDog — July 18, 2008 @ 3:29 pm
One question Ross.. were you drunk when you wrote this? “It was also had ninety-six arms”, “The octopus has eight man arms..” .. C+ :)
Comment by Garett — July 20, 2008 @ 8:28 am
I don’t think so. I mean, all I had at that point was my usual bottle of wine at lunch.
Fixed.
Comment by Ross Rosenberg — July 20, 2008 @ 10:05 am
But where were the membranous wings with which it used to fly through the æther between worlds?
Comment by Evil Jim — July 20, 2008 @ 2:54 pm
The thing I’m most curious about is wether or not it could use even a fraction of those arms independently, the level of conscious control needed to operate that number of arms would be very impressive indeed.
Comment by Nikolai — July 20, 2008 @ 2:55 pm
It looks like a ginseng root.
Comment by Elmo — July 20, 2008 @ 6:20 pm
I didn’t notice until now that the background of this site is really just a bunch of tentacles reaching into the black depths.
Comment by Kingfisher — July 20, 2008 @ 9:58 pm
- Wicked AwZuM. But to think of all that luggage that poor creature must carry / Carried. ;(^ ^) I wonder if it bothered it at all before it died. That is pretty cool though.
Comment by KaT — July 21, 2008 @ 1:32 am
@Bobdog:
Nona = Ninety
Sex = Six
So it could also be Nonasextopus. Which is funny if you know anyone named Nona.
Comment by jackdorf — July 21, 2008 @ 4:46 am
Re: “The thing I’m most curious about is wether or not it could use even a fraction of those arms independently, the level of conscious control needed to operate that number of arms would be very impressive indeed.
Comment by Nikolai — July 20, 2008 @ 2:55 pm”
Octopus have an incredible amount of neurones to the point that each arm could be considered to contain a “brain”. This is best shown during mating when a male octopus uses his sexin’ arm to send sperm packets into the female- if she gets bored of him and tries to swim away, he can release the arm and it will stay partially inside her until it’s done its business. Sometimes the arm doesn’t stay put, and will crawl across the seabed for a while until it dies.
While we’re at it, octopus also have three hearts.
Comment by Dr Nautilus — July 21, 2008 @ 5:02 am
@jackdorf re:nonasextopus
Thank you, kind sir, for illuminating the dark corridors of my feeble mind {=)
Comment by BobDog — July 21, 2008 @ 9:51 am
nonsense! I am certain this is common ~ at least according to the anime I watch.
wubble
wubble
Comment by Benevolent B — July 21, 2008 @ 11:22 am
Nongentisexopus. Nongenti is ninety. Nona is ninth. Such distinctions are easily avoided if you use the Latin word for octopus: polypus.
Comment by Magistra Oimoi — July 23, 2008 @ 11:39 am
::Takes one look at the multi-tentacled thing, screams, and runs over to the safe recesses of cuteoverload to recover.::
Comment by Devon — July 24, 2008 @ 2:22 pm