I have to admit, one of my all-time favorite animals is the octopus. It’s not only an invertebrate, but amazingly intelligent and can be poisonous (like the blue-ring Octopus shown here) or not.
The octopus is an animal because it’s multi-cellular (more than one cell, so amoeba and protists are not animals), it’s moveable (not like a fungus), and a heterotroph (not a plant). Their life cycle starts with a single cell that divides and leads into a multi-celled adult.
All molluscs have a muscular foot on the bottom, and there are three basic shapes: gastropods (snails and slugs), bivalves (oysters and clams), and cephalopods (octpous and squid).
The Indonesian Mimic Octopus, Thaumoctopus mimicus. This fascinating creature was discovered in 1998 off the coast of Sulawesi in Indonesia, the mimic octopus is the first known species to take on the characteristics of multiple species. This octopus is able to copy the physical likeness and movement of more than fifteen different species, including sea snakes, lionfish, flatfish, brittle stars, giant crabs, sea shells, stingrays, jellyfish, sea anemones, and mantis shrimp.
This animal is so intelligent that it is able to discern which dangerous sea creature to impersonate that will present the greatest threat to its current possible predator. For example, scientists observed that when the octopus was attacked by territorial damselfishes, it mimicked the banded sea snake, a known predator of damselfishes.
WOW. The Octopus is an amazing and beautiful animal.
🙂 Love your vids Aurora.
Hi . This is AJ I love your videos and you Aurora
This was amazing didn’t know so smart,
Yes they can! Here’s a good article with images:
https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/invertebrates/how-octopuses-and-squids-change-color
Can Squid transform like Octopus? Can they change their color and shape? I didn’t think they could, but I’m making sure 🙂
SO INCREDIBLY FASCINATING!!!
Thank you SO MUCH!
Octopus are such remarkable creatures! They are… just…. SO smart!!!! It’s totally mind blowing!
cool!!!
Yes they sure can! You can read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimic_octopus
Can the mimic octopus change colour?
In the video, he changed shape but I didn’t notice any colour changes.
Katherine Braman
octopi are so fun to watch!
The same? How? And compared to what?
Are squid the same?
From Briar.
Thanks!
Yes, cuttlefish are marine animals that are part of the class Cephalopoda, which includes octopodes, squid, and nautiluses. Cuttlefish are actually molluscs, not a fish at all!
Dear Aurora.
The other day my dad and I went to the beach and saw a fisherman catch a very colourful
squid, we sent a photo to my sister and my mum, my sister didn’t think it was a squid but thought it was a cuttlefish
because it was so colourful. I know squid are part of the cuttlefish family but are squid cuttlefish?
from Briar.
SUPER COOL!!!
my favorite is the blue ringed octopus , they are tiny but extremely poisonous though
That is the coolest octopus I’ve ever seen!
Tamar krongold
They are good at what they do but they creep me out.
Alexander Cleary
they seem very intelligent
They’re awesome, beautiful, and so graceful! This is amazing!