Octopus habitat. Giant octopus. Pacific striped octopus

They have existed since ancient times. But even today there are eyewitnesses who are ready to confirm the most incredible hypotheses. Judging by the descriptions of sailors and scientists, giant octopuses still exist. They hide in the deep waters of the oceans and coastal caves, only occasionally catching the eye of a person, scaring fishermen and divers.

Information that giant octopuses actually live in the sea comes from different parts of the planet. Thus, the largest octopus caught from the depths of the sea reached 22 meters in length, and the diameter of its suckers reached 15 cm. What are these monsters and why have they not yet been studied?

What do we know about octopuses?

It is their limbs that grow directly from the head, can take any position, and with them the mollusk captures the victim. The mantle covers the gills and internal organs.

The head is small with round expressive eyes. To move, the octopus grabs water with its mantle and sharply pushes it out through a funnel located under its head. Thanks to this push, it moves backwards. Along with the water, ink comes out of the funnel - waste products of the octopus. The mouth of this sea creature is very interesting. It is a beak, the tongue is covered with a horny grater with many small but very sharp teeth. One of the teeth (the central one) is noticeably larger than the others; the octopus uses it to drill holes in the shells and shells of animals.

Giant octopus: who is it?

This is a representative of the Octopus dofleini family, living on rocky shores. The largest specimen, which was described and entered into the Guinness Book of Records, had a limb length of 3.5 m (excluding the mantle). Later evidence from sailors proves that there were larger animals with tentacles up to 5 meters long. These giant octopuses terrified eyewitnesses, although they did not pose any danger to humans. The diet of these marine inhabitants does not include, but they can scare humans. When irritated, the mollusk changes color to dark burgundy, takes a frightening pose, raising its tentacles, and throws out dark ink.

The giant octopus, the photo of which is presented above, has already released ink from a special ink channel and is ready to rush into battle. If an octopus throws its limbs behind its head and puts its suction cups forward, it means that it is preparing to fight back the enemy - this is a typical pose for repelling an attack.

Are giant octopuses dangerous?

Aggression of this animal can be caused if you roughly grab it or try to pull it out of its hole. Cases of attacks on humans are not uncommon, but no deaths have been recorded from suffocation with tentacles. Octopuses are inherently shy, so they usually try to hide when meeting a person. Although during the mating season, some individuals are very aggressive and are not afraid of humans. The mollusk Octopus dofleini can bite painfully, but this bite is not poisonous, unlike the bite of some tropical relatives. These large octopuses are kept in aquariums. However, their lifespan is short: the female dies after the birth of her offspring, and the male even earlier, immediately after mating.

Octopuses are amazing creatures. They amaze with their behavior, high intelligence and size. Therefore, today we will tell you about the most amazing and unusual species of these sea creatures.

10 – Genus Hapalochlaena

Blue Ring Octopus

The blue-ringed octopus lives in small tidal pools and coral reefs in the Pacific and Indian oceans. Despite their modest size, these octopuses are considered one of the deadliest in the world.

9 – Benthoctopus


Benthic octopus (Benthic octopus)

The benthic octopus is actually a species of deep sea octopus that crawls along the bottom and often lives among the wrecks of sunken ships. Very little is known about this rare and shy creature, mainly that they live primarily in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean.

8 – Tremoctopus


Blanket Octopus

This octopus soars thanks to its long transparent net, which stretches between its tentacles like large flaps of flesh if the octopus feels in danger. He displays them in full size, appearing larger than he actually is.

7 – Vulcanoctopus Hydrothermal


Octopuses living near hydrothermal vents (Hydrothermal Vent Octopus)

This small octopus lives near hot hydrothermal vents. Its eyes are covered with thin translucent skin, which helps it see in deep waters.

6 – Octopus Wolfi


Spinning top octopus

This octopus is considered the smallest in the world and lives in the Indo-Pacific region. If you go looking for it, don't forget to bring a magnifying glass.

5 – Amphioctopus margins


Coconut Octopus

The coconut octopus is a medium-sized cephalopod that uses coconut shells as a ready-made home. It can also be quite creative, using any cover to hide from predators.

4 – Enteroctopus Dofleini


Giant octopus (Giant Pacific Octopus)

The giant octopus, native to the North Pacific Ocean, is one of the largest cephalopods on the planet. They grow to a larger size and live longer than any other species of octopus. In fact, the record for this species was an individual measuring 9.1 meters in length.

3 – Thaumoctopus Mimicus

Mimic octopus

The Mimic Octopus gets its name because it can imitate other animals such as fish and crabs! It lives exclusively in the nutrient-rich estuarine bays of Indonesia and Malaysia.

2 – Vitrelladonella Richardi


Transparent Octopus

This incredible and very rare species of deep sea

For many centuries, the minds of sailors were excited by a possible encounter with a giant kraken - a monster the size of a small island, whose tentacles drag unwary ships into the depths of the sea. , whether there is the largest octopus in the world or the real prototypes of this monster are not impressive in size.

Top - 4 largest species of octopuses

Cephalopods are distinguished by their predatory nature, but more often they become victims of humans and larger inhabitants of the ocean, including sperm whales and killer whales. There are about 200 species of octopuses. Most of them are small benthic animals. It is worth looking for giants among the pelagic species that roam the depths of the oceans.

4. The long-tentacled octopus lives in Mediterranean waters. It was first described in 1826. The bright red body of the animal is covered with luminous white spots. It is nocturnal, hunting fish and smaller octopuses. The octopus does not refuse crustaceans and bivalves. From spring to late summer, the female long-tentacled octopus mates and then lays a single clutch. The octopus guards the future cubs until the appearance of 4 mm fully formed babies. Soon after this, the mother octopus dies from exhaustion. The mantle extends 15 cm, but the tentacles extend the total length of the octopus’s body to 1 m. An adult cephalopod weighs 400 g.

3. The common octopus is the most common species of this order in the world. He lives in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The brain is well developed. Able to change color depending on the situation, but the usual color is brown. It feeds on plankton, fish, mollusks, and crustaceans. Females take care of the clutch and do not leave the nest for six months, which is necessary for the cubs to develop in the egg. It is of commercial interest to humans and is harvested as a food product. The body length usually reaches 25 cm, and the tentacles - 90 cm. However, there are specimens with limbs up to 130 cm, which gives the total length of the creature about 170 cm.

2. The Doflein's Octopus, sometimes called the Giant Octopus, is common in the northern coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean. It makes a lair on rocky ground: in underwater caves and secluded crevices. The Japanese and Koreans catch them as a game animal. The average representative grows up to 2 - 3 m with a weight of 25 - 50 kg. There is known evidence of the existence of specimens up to 9.6 m in length. It is he who holds the title of the largest cephalopod in the world, according to the 2015 Guinness Book of Records.

1. The seven-armed octopus received such a strange name not at all because it is disabled without one limb. The hectocotylus of this species is folded into a pouch under the right eye. This is the modified eighth tentacle, hidden from view, which the octopus uses to fertilize the female. These creatures grow up to 3.5 m in length and weigh up to 75 kg.

Largest known octopus specimens

Legends about the notorious krakens did not appear only from the impressionability of sailors. Sometimes the ocean waves washed ashore the corpses of monstrous inhabitants of the depths. How large can individual members of the octopus order be?

• In 1945, a specimen up to 8 m long and weighing 180 kg was caught off the coast of the United States.
• One day, a Doflein octopus with 9-meter tentacles and a mass of more than 270 kg was caught in a net.
• A representative of the octopus order, 3.7 m long and almost a meter across, was caught off the coast of Tasmania. In the stomach of the octopus, fishermen found a piece of the T-shirt of the previously missing crayfish catcher Shaw Burke. It is unknown whether the clothing ended up inside the animal by accident or whether it had a tentacle attached to the person's death. This is how the legends about krakens are born.

In the last 20 years, octopuses weighing about 50 kg have been found much less frequently. Perhaps smart creatures decided that large size is not such a profitable evolutionary acquisition. Large representatives are easily noticed by sperm whales and killer whales, and are caught for human consumption. It is easier for small octopuses to hide in secluded gorges from dangerous predators. The giants of the world of eight-armed mollusks are becoming a thing of the past.

Currently the largest and heaviest octopus in the world – This is a representative of either seven-armed or doflein. However, in the future they will also be crushed, giving way to other giants of the deep sea. of this detachment served as the basis for the myths about the legendary kraken - a monster that drags entire ships into the depths of the sea. Jules Verne dedicated an entire scene to him in the immortal “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.” Even if large octopuses no longer get caught in the nets of fishermen and the lenses of divers’ cameras, the legend about them will not cease to live in the minds of dreamers.

In order to meet amazing aliens from other worlds who have a certain intelligence and are as different from humans as possible, you do not need to fly into space. They live next to us in the seas and oceans. These creatures - octopuses - are a legacy of ancient centuries, images of huge octopuses, monsters from the depths of the sea, of which people have always feared. They have long been attributed demonic glory and power, as if they were able to sink a ship or approach a diver with the insidious purpose of crushing the victim with their tentacles and holding him until he suffocates.

Mysterious inhabitants of the water world

Modern researchers have long refuted all such legends and fantasies. The truth turned out to be impressive; these animals are endowed with a lot of amazing qualities:

• they are smart and sensitive (millions of neurons in their tentacles give them an unrivaled sense of touch);
• have excellent vision and are able to quickly analyze what they see;
• they have a well-developed nervous system;
• they have three hearts;
• their blood is blue;
• they have eight prehensile, constantly moving tentacle arms with suction cups responsible for touch and balance, which are sometimes used as legs to move along the seabed;
• they communicate through color, while they themselves distinguish only black and white colors;
• move with the help of a jet engine;
• capable of perfect camouflage and camouflage, changing the color of their skin and its texture in a split second.

These bizarre creatures have no skeleton or shell, but only a soft, elastic body that can change shape. Even the largest octopus will be able to squeeze into any gap that does not limit its only solid organ, its beak mouth. This organ is made of keratin, like our nails, and looks like a parrot's beak. An animal weighing 16-18 kg can easily get into a hole with a diameter of 3.5 cm.

These inhabitants of the depths of the sea are terrible and at the same time charming, they carry you into mysterious depths so that a person realizes all their charm and gets to know them better. There are more than 300 species of octopuses in the world, 100 of which have been described, and they come in all shapes, colors and sizes. They can live in almost any habitat, from shallow waters off the coast to deep hydrothermal vents. Large animals are of particular interest. These are the common octopus, Dofleina and Appolion.

There are stories of rare leviathans raised from the depths of the sea, weighing more than 50 kg. Stories of fearsome giants with tentacles over 10m long date back more than 50 years, with some giant octopuses caught weighing more than 180kg, the same as a black bear. This species has a bad reputation. Above the eyes of the octopus there are two outgrowths resembling horns, for which it was nicknamed the “sea devil”. This is Doflein's octopus.

This species of cephalopod is the most studied. Such individuals live in the seas of the Far East, off the coast of Japan and America. They prefer to live at shallow depths, not descending below 300 m. Animals of this species are capable of reaching a weight of more than 50 kg, although their usual standard weight is 25 kg. There is a known case when an octopus weighing more than 270 kg with a “span” of tentacles of over 9 m was caught.

At birth, Doflein's octopuses are only 6 mm long and weigh 0.003 grams. They double their weight every three months. At the age of two years they reach a weight of 2 kg, then until 32 months they make a leap, sharply increasing to 18 kg. These large octopuses feed continuously and eat all the food they can find, and can eat their own kind. Such octopuses live only 4 years.

This predator lives in all tropical and subtropical oceans and seas, in shallow waters up to 150 m with rocky bottom areas. Standard body length is 25 cm, weight is up to 10 kg.

The common octopus lives alone, hiding from large fish and marine mammals, camouflaging itself only when it goes out to hunt. Life expectancy is no more than two years.

Apollyon

This view is huge. The octopus can lay claim to the title of giant. But the Apollyon has the only drawback - its low weight despite its large body size. The proportions of this species of octopus resemble a non-standard spider: long, fragile and thin legs extend from a small body.

Apollyons live in rocks off the coast of western Canada, Alaska and California. Deep, cold, oxygen-rich waters provide optimal living conditions for maximum octopus growth.

The modern context of the image of an octopus is the image of a graceful giant, however, it has been noted that over the last 15-20 years, large octopuses weighing 50 kg have become increasingly rare. This may be a genetic trait that gives octopuses a smaller size than they had 50 to 80 years ago. The reasons may be substances polluting the oceans and increased fishing for octopus (crab) food. Or maybe, in a warming world, these sensitive giants simply lay low? Climate change is definitely a threat to the huge octopuses. It is possible that supergiants exist at depths to which humans cannot yet descend using modern equipment.

The octopus is a representative of the family of cephalopods. It is popularly known as an octopus, as it has eight huge tentacles. Since ancient times, there have been many legends and myths about this inhabitant of the seas. For example, sailors believed that a giant octopus-kraken lived in the ocean, capable of dragging an entire ship under water. These representatives of cephalopods form two suborders: deep-sea octopuses (Cirrata) and true octopuses (Incirrata).

The size of most octopuses does not exceed half a meter; only the common octopus, Apollyon, Hong Kong and Doflein octopus are considered large. Some species are poisonous. They live in subtropical and tropical seas and oceans, most often in coastal rocky areas. They feed on crustaceans, mollusks and fish. Octopuses breathe through gills and can remain out of water for a short time.

Anatomy and physiology of octopuses

The octopus or octopus is a typical representative of cephalopods. Their body is compact, soft, round. The length of an adult octopus varies in the range from 1 centimeter to 4 meters. The mass of an octopus can reach 50 kilograms.

On the body of the octopus there is a mantle, which is a leather bag. The length of the mantle in males reaches 9.5 centimeters, and in females - 13.5 centimeters. An octopus has no bones. Because of this feature, it can easily change its shape and stay in a limited space.

The octopus has eight tentacles that are interconnected. A thin membrane serves as a connector. Located on the tentacles suction cups in 1-3 rows. The number of suckers in an adult can reach two thousand. One suction cup can hold approximately 100 grams of weight. In this case, retention occurs only due to the work of muscles, and not due to adhesion.

The mouth opening is where the tentacles grow. The mouth is equipped two strong jaws, similar to the beak of birds. The pharynx has a radula, similar to a grater, that grinds food. The anus is hidden under the mantle.

Common octopus may change color. This occurs under the influence of signals transmitted by the nervous system in response to the external environment. In its normal state the octopus is brown, in case of danger it is white, and if it is angry it is red.

The eyes of an octopus are similar to human ones: large with lens and an outwardly oriented retina. It is noteworthy that the pupils are rectangular in shape.

Features of the organism of octopuses

This cephalopod has three hearts: one is responsible for distributing blood throughout the body, the other two are responsible for conducting blood through the gills.

Octopus has highly developed brain and rudiments of the cortex. The shape of the brain resembles a donut. This shape allows the brain to be compactly positioned around the esophagus. Cephalopods are capable of perceiving not only ordinary sounds, but also infrasound.

Also, thanks to the huge number of taste buds, the edibility of food is determined. Compared to other invertebrates, the octopus very large genome. It has 28 pairs of chromosomes and approximately 33 thousand protein-coding genes. According to the latter indicator, the octopus is even ahead of humans.

Octopus lifestyle and behavior

Octopuses live in all seas and oceans in the tropics and subtropics. As a rule, these animals lead a benthic lifestyle alone. They prefer to settle among stones and algae. They can settle in the empty shells of other underwater inhabitants.

For living, they choose a den with a narrow entrance, but spacious inside. Cleanliness is achieved using a funnel. Garbage and leftovers are not kept inside the habitat. On a hard surface, even a vertical one, octopuses move by crawling with the help of tentacles.

If an octopus needs to swim, then to do this, the octopus draws water into the cavity where its gills are located and forcefully pushes it out in the opposite direction. If a change in direction is required, the funnel through which the water is pushed is rotated.

Any of the octopus's movement options is very slow, so for hunting the animal actively uses ambushes and color changes to obtain food.

The main enemies of octopuses are:

• dolphins;
• whales;
• sea ​​lions;
• sharks;
• seals.

In case of danger, the octopus will often flees for his life, while releasing a dark liquid from special glands. How long does this liquid remain compact in the water, allowing the octopus to hide? Some zoologists believe that these shapeless spots also act as decoys.

In addition, if a tentacle is grabbed, it can come off due to strong muscle contraction. The tentacle continues to move for some time, which allows the octopus to break away from the enemy.

Reproduction of octopuses

Breeding periods occur in April and October. In some areas the dates have been shifted and fall to June and October. An octopus mates by releasing sperm from the mantle of the male into the mantle of the female.

Female octopuses after fertilization lay eggs. For laying, they choose depressions in the ground and make a nest, covering it with shells and stones. The eggs of octopuses are spherical, united in groups of 8–20 pieces.

In one clutch there may be 80 thousand eggs. The octopus takes care of the eggs, passing water, removing dirt and foreign objects. Until the eggs hatch, the female remains at the nest without food. It happens that she even dies after the young hatch.

During the first months, newborn octopuses feed on plankton and lead only a benthic lifestyle. After a month and a half, they already reach 12 millimeters and weigh several grams, and upon reaching 4 months they weigh about a kilogram.

Of the entire clutch, only one or two individuals reach sexual maturity. The lifespan of animals can reach 4 years, but on average octopuses live 1−2 years.

What do octopuses eat?

By the nature of their feeding, bottom-dwelling octopuses are classified as lurking predators. Hidden in their shelter, they patiently watch for passing fish, crabs, lobsters, lobsters and quickly rush at them, enveloping them with their long arms. The favorite food of octopuses is Kamchatka crabs.

Having caught a crab, the octopus carries it, holding it with its tentacles like hands, to its shelter. Sometimes one octopus drags several crabs at once. Octopuses also catch large gobies and flounders. Capture of prey occurs with the help of suction cups on the tentacles. Their strength is amazing: a suction cup with a diameter of 3 centimeters can withstand 2.5-3.5 kilograms.

This is a lot, especially since these animals have hundreds of suckers. Very ingenious experiments were carried out to determine the strength of the suction cups. Octopuses kept in an aquarium were given a crab tied to a dynamometer. He instantly grabbed the crab with his hands and hurried to hide with it in the shelter, but the leash did not allow him to do this.

Then the octopus firmly attached itself to the crab and began to forcefully pull it towards itself. At the same time, he held the crab with three hands, and with the rest he stuck to the bottom of the aquarium. Octopuses weighing about 1 kilogram or more could develop a force equal to 18 kilograms.

Octopuses recognize the taste of food not with their tongue, which is converted into a grater, but with their hands. The entire inner surface of the tentacles and suckers are involved in tasting food. These sea animals have an unusually subtle sense of taste; they can even taste their enemies.

Octopuses prefer to eat:

1. Fish.
2. Crustaceans.
3. Marine animals and shellfish.

If you drop a drop of water near an octopus, taken from an aquarium where a moray eel, the worst enemy of mollusks, lives, the octopus will immediately turn purple and run away.

Like many other cephalopods, octopuses belong to carnivorous animals. They grab their food with their tentacles and kill it with poison, and only then begin to consume it internally. If the victim is caught with a shell, then the octopus breaks it with its “beak” located near the mouth.