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| An octopus opening a container with a screw cap |
- A group of octopuses is called a consortium
- All octopuses are venomous, but only one group, called blue-ringed octopuses are deadly to humans
- Octopuses have three hearts. Two branchial hearts pump blood through each of the two gills, while the third pumps blood through the body.
- Octopuses are highly intelligent, likely more so than any other order of invertebrates.(See picture)
- The Hawaiian creation myth relates that the present cosmos is only the last of a series, having arisen in stages from the wreck of the previous universe. In this account, the octopus is the lone survivor of the previous, alien universe.
- The very venomous blue-ringed octopus becomes bright yellow with blue rings when it is provoked.
- When under attack, some octopuses can perform arm autotomy, in a similar manner to the way skinks and other lizards detach their tails. The crawling arm serves as a distraction to would-be predators.
- A few species, such as the Mimic Octopus, have a fourth defense mechanism. They can combine their highly flexible bodies with their color-changing ability to accurately mimic other, more dangerous animals such as lionfish, sea snakes, and eels.
- They have neither a protective outer shell like the nautilus, nor any vestige of an internal shell or bones, like cuttlefish or squid. A beak, similar in shape to a parrot's beak, is the only hard part of their body.
- They usually inject their prey with a paralyzing saliva before dismembering it into small pieces with their beaks.
- Large octopuses have also been known to catch and kill some species of sharks.
- The octopus is the only invertebrate which has been shown to use tools. At least four specimens of the Veined Octopus have been witnessed retrieving discarded coconut shells, manipulating them, and then reassembling them to use as shelter. This discovery was documented in the journal Current Biology and has also been caught on video.
Greater Blue-ringed Octopus
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