Why does octopus have eight legs

Octopuses are highly intelligent animals, masters of camouflage that have evolved an array of tricks over tens of millions of years to avoid or thwart would-be attackers. They can match the colors and even textures of their surroundings, allowing them to hide in plain sight. If a predator gets too close octopuses can escape quickly, shooting themselves forward by expelling water from a muscular tube called a siphon. Their soft bodies mean octopuses can fit into impossibly small nooks and crannies, as long as the holes are not smaller than the only hard parts of their bodies: their beaks.

If all else fails, octopuses can lose an arm to an attacker and regrow one later. Octopuses can open clamshells, maneuver rocks—even dismantle the filtration systems of an aquarium tank. Another shot a jet of water at a light to cause a commotion. There are around species of octopus and they are found in every ocean. Most live on the seafloor , but some, like the paper nautilus , drift nearer to the surface. Octopuses mostly feed on crabs, shrimp, and mollusks. Solitary animals, they typically live alone, sometimes in dens they build from rocks, sometimes in shells they pull over on top of themselves.

All rights reserved. Octopuses How many hearts does an octopus have? How do species like the mimic octopus camouflage themselves? Find out about these and other octopus facts. Common Name: Octopuses. Scientific Name: Octopoda. Diet: Carnivore. One alarming behavior involving captive octopuses occurs when they get bored. This is known as autophagy. Octopuses also know how to use tools, just like chimpanzees, dolphins, and crows.

For example, scientists have observed them stacking up coconut shells to create mobile homes. An octopus named Billye from the Seattle Aquarium was able to open a pill bottle with a snack inside. It initially took her 55 minutes to push, turn, and twist it open, but she eventually learned how to do the task in just five minutes. Sign up for our Newsletter and get weird news and exclusive offers to Ripley's, delivered straight to your inbox! Octopuses have six arms and two legs, not eight tentacles as they are sometimes mistakenly called.

They used the remaining limbs to swim or propel themselves along the ocean floor. A fisherman discovered a rare phenomenon while making dinner — one of the octopuses boiling in a pot had nine legs. The octopus, which has an extra limb emerging midway from one of its eight other legs, was found in Shizugawa Bay in the town of Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture. Many octopus arm anomalies have been recorded, including a 6-armed octopus nicknamed Henry the Hexapus , a 7-armed octopus, a armed Octopus briareus, one with a forked arm tip, octopuses with double or bilateral hectocotylization, and specimens with up to 96 arm branches.