Environment

6 arms and 2 legs

by Paul Conneally | August 13, 2008 at 10:29 am

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A while back I highlighted a story about how a marine zoo in Weymouth UK was trying to find out if Octopuses were left or right handed by getting them to play with Rubik's Cubes and other toys now that research has shown that instead of 8 arms they actually have 6 arms and 2 legs. This is totally unexpected as up until now the arms were viewed as being pretty similar. The octopus continues to amaze us with its intellegence and complexity. Truly a wonder of the deep.

A giant Pacific octopus called Mavis has helped researchers to prove that the one thing everyone knows about the creatures is wrong.

The name octopus is derived from the Ancient Greek for eight feet. Mavis, who lives in a tank at Weymouth Sea Life Centre, actually has six arms and two legs.

Researchers who were studying octopuses’ behaviour were taken aback to discover that some of the most basic assumptions about them were wrong.

Until now it had been believed that the tentacles were deployed in two equal sets, one set of four for propulsion and the other for manipulation.