Dumbo octopus
Grimpoteuthis bathynectes
— Where the name comes from
Grimpoteuthis joins the name of the French biologist Étienne Grimpe, a specialist in cephalopods, to the Greek teuthís, the squid. Bathynectes is “swimmer of the deeps”. The common name comes instead from a cartoon: the two fins protruding from the body like ears suggested Dumbo the elephant, and it is now how these animals are called even in scientific papers.
— Facts
- Group
- Molluscs · Mollusca
- Order
- Octopuses
- Habitat
- Abyssal bottoms between 1,000 and 7,000 metres
- Range
- North Pacific
- Size
- 20–30 cm
- Diet
- Worms, crustaceans and molluscs of the bottom
- Lifespan
- 3–5 years
— Characteristics
- 01
It swims by flapping two fins, not by jet like other octopuses.
- 02
It swallows prey whole: it has no radula to shred it.
- 03
It lives deeper than any other known octopus.
— What sets it apart
It is the deepest-living octopus of all — it has been filmed at nearly seven thousand metres — and to manage it has given up almost everything that makes an octopus recognisable: it has no ink sac, which would be useless in total darkness, no suckers with horny rings, and it moves not by jet but by slowly beating two fins like a fish. The female carries eggs at several stages of development at once and lays them one at a time under a stone, whenever the chance arises: in an environment where food comes at random, breeding at a set moment would be a senseless bet.
