Curious facts about octopuses. How dangerous is an octopus for humans? All about octopuses

Octopuses are the most famous cephalopods, but, nevertheless, hiding many secrets of their biology. There are 200 species of octopuses in the world, classified as a separate order. Their closest relatives are squids and cuttlefish, and their distant relatives are all gastropods and bivalves.

Giant octopus (Octopus dofleini).

The appearance of the octopus is a little disconcerting. Everything about this animal is not obvious - it is not clear where the head is, where the limbs are, where the mouth is, where the eyes are. It's actually simple. The sac-like body of the octopus is called the mantle; on the front side it is fused with a large head, on the upper surface of which there are bulging eyes. The mouth of an octopus is tiny and surrounded by chitinous jaws - a beak. Octopuses need their beak to grind food, since they cannot swallow prey whole. In addition, they have a special grater in their throat that grinds pieces of food into pulp. The mouth is surrounded by tentacles, the number of which is always 8. The tentacles of an octopus are long and muscular, their lower surface is studded with suckers of different sizes. The tentacles are connected by a small membrane - the umbrella. The 20 species of fin octopuses have small fins on the sides of their bodies that are used more as rudders than motors.

Fin-finned octopuses due to wing-like fins resembling ears in English language called Dumbo octopuses.

If you look closely, you can see a hole or a short tube under the eyes - this is a siphon. The siphon leads into the mantle cavity, into which the octopus draws water. By contracting the muscles of the mantle, he forcefully squeezes water out of the mantle cavity, thereby creating a jet stream that pushes his body forward. It just turns out that the octopus is swimming backwards.

The octopus' siphon is visible just below the eye.

Octopuses have a rather complex structure internal organs. Yes, their circulatory system almost closed and tiny arterial vessels almost connect with venous ones. These animals have three hearts: one large (three-chambered) and two small ones - gills. The gill hearts push blood to the main heart, which directs blood flow to the rest of the body. Octopuses' blood is...blue! The blue color is due to the presence of a special respiratory pigment - hemocyanin, which replaces hemoglobin in octopuses. The gills themselves are located in the mantle cavity; they serve not only for respiration, but also for the release of decay products (together with the kidney sacs). The metabolism of octopuses is unusual because they excrete nitrogenous compounds not in the form of urea, but in the form of ammonium, which gives the muscles a specific smell. In addition, octopuses have a special ink sac in which dye is stored for protection.

The octopus' funnel-shaped suckers use the suction force of a vacuum.

Octopuses are the most intelligent of all invertebrate animals. Their brain is surrounded by special cartilage, which surprisingly resembles the skull of vertebrates. Octopuses have well-developed sense organs. The eyes have reached the highest perfection: they are not only very large (they occupy most of the head), but also complex in structure. The structure of the octopus's eye is fundamentally no different from the human eye! Octopuses see separately with each eye, but when they want to look at something more closely, they bring their eyes together and focus them on the object, that is, they also have the rudiments of binocular vision. The viewing angle of the bulging eyes approaches 360°. In addition, light-sensitive cells are scattered throughout the skin of octopuses, which allow them to determine the general direction of light. Octopuses have taste buds... on their arms, or rather on their suction cups. Octopuses do not have hearing organs, but they are able to detect infrasounds.

Octopuses have rectangular pupils.

Octopuses are often colored brown, red, or yellowish, but they can change color no worse than chameleons. The change of color is carried out according to the same principle as in reptiles: in the skin of octopuses there are chromatophore cells containing pigments, they can stretch and contract in a matter of seconds. Cells contain only red, brown and yellow pigments, alternate stretching and contraction of cells different color creates a wide variety of patterns and shades. In addition, under the layer of chromatophores there are special irridiocyst cells. They contain plates that rotate, change the direction of light and reflect it. As a result of the refraction of rays in irridiocysts, the skin can turn green, blue and Blue colour. Just like chameleons, the change in color of octopuses is directly related to the color of the environment, the well-being and mood of the animal. A frightened octopus turns pale, while an angry one turns red and even black. It is interesting that the change in color directly depends on visual signals: a blinded octopus loses the ability to change color, a blinded octopus in one eye changes color only on the “sighted” side of the body, tactile signals from the tentacles also play a certain role, they also affect skin color.

An "angry" blue reef octopus (Amphioctopus marginatus) with an unusual coloration. When calm, these octopuses are brown with blue suckers.

The largest giant octopus reaches a length of 3 m and weighs 50 kg; most species are medium and small in size (0.2-1 m in length). A special exception is the male Argonaut octopus, which is much smaller than the females of its species and barely reaches a length of 1 cm!

Habitat various types Octopuses cover almost the entire world, only you won’t find them in the polar regions, but still they penetrate further north than other cephalopods. Most often, octopuses are found in warm seas in shallow waters and among coral reefs at depths of up to 150 m. Deep sea species can penetrate to depths of up to 5000 m. Shallow-water species usually lead a sedentary bottom lifestyle; most of the time they hide in reef shelters, between rocks, under stones and come out only to hunt. But among octopuses there are also pelagic species, that is, those that constantly move in the water column far from the shores. Most pelagic species are deep-sea. Octopuses live alone and are very attached to their area. These animals are active in the dark, they sleep with with open eyes(they only constrict their pupils), octopuses turn yellow in their sleep.

The same blue reef octopus in a calm state. These octopuses love to settle in the shells of bivalve mollusks.

There is an opinion that octopuses are aggressive and dangerous to humans, but this is nothing more than prejudice. In fact, only the largest species demonstrate a threat reaction to scuba divers and only during the breeding season. Otherwise, octopuses are cowardly and cautious. They prefer not to get involved even with an enemy of equal size, and they all hide from large ones possible ways. These animals have many ways of protecting themselves. Firstly, octopuses can swim quickly. They usually move along the bottom on half-bent tentacles (as if crawling) or swim slowly, but when frightened they can make jerks at speeds of up to 15 km/h. A fleeing octopus tries to hide in a shelter. Since octopuses have no bones, their body has amazing plasticity and is able to squeeze into a very narrow crack. Moreover, octopuses build shelters with their own hands, surrounding crevices with stones, shells and other debris, behind which they hide as if behind a fortress wall.

Octopus in shelter surrounded itself building material- shell shells.

Secondly, octopuses change color, camouflaging themselves with the surrounding landscape. They do this even in a calm environment (“just in case”), and skillfully imitate any surface: stone, sand, broken shells, corals. A copycat octopus from Indonesian waters imitates not only the color but also the shape of 24 species marine organisms (sea ​​snakes, stingrays, brittle stars, jellyfish, flounders, etc.), and the octopus always imitates the species that the predator that attacked it is afraid of.

A mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus) masquerading as a lobster.

On soft soils, octopuses bury themselves in the sand, from where only a pair of inquisitive eyes stick out. But all these methods of protection are nothing compared to the know-how of octopuses - the “ink bomb”. They resort to this method of defense only when very frightened. A swimming octopus releases a dark-colored liquid from its sac, which disorients the enemy and more... The liquid affects nerve receptors, for example, it deprives the sense of smell for a while predatory moray eels, there is a known case when liquid got into the eyes of a scuba diver and changed his color perception; for several minutes the person saw everything in yellow color. The musk octopus's ink also smells musky. Moreover, often the released liquid does not dissolve in water instantly, but for several seconds retains the shape... of the octopus itself! Here's a decoy and chemical weapon the octopus slips it to its pursuers.

And this is an octopus imitator, but already pretending to be a stingray.

Finally, if all the tricks do not help, the octopuses can engage in open battle with the enemy. They show an unbending will to live and resist to the last: they bite, try to gnaw through nets, try to mimic until their last breath (there is a known case when an octopus, pulled out of the water, reproduced on its body... lines from the newspaper on which it was lying!), grabbed by the one tentacle, the octopuses sacrifice it to the enemy and discard part of the arm. Some species of octopuses are poisonous; their venom is not fatal to humans, but causes swelling, dizziness, and weakness. The exception is blue-ringed octopuses; their nerve venom is fatal and causes cardiac and respiratory arrest. Fortunately, these Australian octopuses are small and secretive, so accidents involving them are rare.

Big blue-ringed octopus(Hapalochlaena lunulata).

All octopuses are active predators. They feed on crabs, lobsters, bottom mollusks, and fish. Octopuses catch moving prey with their tentacles and immobilize them with poison, and the suction force of the tentacles is great, because only one sucker of a large octopus develops a force of 100 g. They gnaw the shells of sedentary mollusks with their beak and grind them with a grater; the poison also slightly softens the shells of crabs.

A swimming giant octopus moves with the back of its body forward and its head backward.

A clutch of spiny octopus (Abdopus aculeatus) peeks out between the tentacles of a caring mother.

Female octopuses are exemplary mothers. They entwine the masonry with their hands and carefully lull it to sleep, blow away the smallest debris with water from their siphon, during the entire incubation period (1-4 months) they do not eat anything and eventually die from exhaustion (sometimes their mouth even becomes overgrown). Males also die after mating. Octopus larvae are born with an ink sac and can create an ink curtain from the first minutes of life. In addition, small octopuses sometimes decorate their tentacles with stinging cells. poisonous jellyfish, which replace their own poison. Octopuses grow quickly, small species live only 1-2 years, large ones - up to 4 years.

A giant octopus displays a membrane (umbrella) between its outstretched tentacles.

In nature, octopuses have many enemies; they feed on them. large fish, seals, sea ​​lions and cats, seabirds. Large octopuses can dine on small relatives, so they hide from each other no less than from other animals. People have been hunting octopuses for a long time. Most of these animals are caught in the Mediterranean Sea and off the coast of Japan. In Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine, there are many dishes with octopus meat. When catching octopuses, they use their habit of hiding in secluded places; to do this, broken jugs and pots are lowered to the bottom, into which the octopuses crawl, then they are raised to the surface along with the false house.

The common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) Paul “draws lots” - opens the feeder.

It is difficult to keep octopuses at home, but in public aquariums they are welcome guests. It is interesting to watch these animals; they can develop basic conditioned reflexes, octopuses solve some problems no worse than rats. For example, octopuses perfectly distinguish between all kinds of geometric figures, and they recognize not only triangles, circles, squares, but can also distinguish a lying rectangle from a standing one. When well cared for, they recognize the person caring for them and greet him, crawling out of the shelter. The most famous pet was the common octopus Paul from the Center Oceanarium sea ​​life» in Oberhausen (Germany). The octopus became famous for accurately predicting the victory of the German football team during the World Cup in 2010. Of the two feeders offered, the octopus always opened the feeder with the symbols of the winning team. The mechanism of the “prophecies” remained unknown; Paul died in 2010 at the age of about 2 years, which corresponds to natural duration life.

Octopuses represent the class of cephalopods (Cephalopoda) known for their intelligence, supernatural ability blend with the environment, a unique style of movement ( jet propulsion), as well as splashing ink. On the following slides, you will discover 10 fascinating facts about octopuses.

1. Octopuses are divided into two main suborders

We know about 300 living species of octopuses, which are divided into two main groups (suborders): 1) finned or deep-sea octopuses (Cirrina) and 2) finless or true octopuses (Incirrina). Fin fish are characterized by the presence of two fins on the head and a small inner shell. In addition, they have antennae on their arms (tentacles) near each sucker, which may play a role in feeding. Finless, includes many of the best known species of octopuses, most of which are benthic.

2. Octopus tentacles are called arms

The average person won't see the difference between tentacles and arms, but marine biologists clearly distinguish between the two. The arms of cephalopods are covered with suction cups along their entire length, and the tentacles have suction cups only at the tips and are used to capture food. By this standard, most octopuses have eight arms and no tentacles, while two other orders of cephalopods, cuttlefish and squid, have eight arms and two tentacles.

3. Octopuses release ink to protect themselves.

When threatened by predators, most octopuses release a thick cloud of black ink made up of melanin (the same pigment that affects the color of our skin and hair). You might think that the cloud simply serves as a visual distraction to buy the octopuses time to escape, but it also affects the predators' sense of smell (sharks, which can smell hundreds of meters away, are especially vulnerable to this kind of olfactory attack).

4. Octopuses are extremely intelligent

Octopuses are the only marine animals, other than whales and pinnipeds, that are capable of solving certain problems and recognizing various patterns. But regardless of octopus intelligence, it is very different from human intelligence: 70% of an octopus's neurons are located along the length of its arms, not in its brain, and there is no conclusive evidence that these are capable of communicating with each other.

5. Octopuses have three hearts

All vertebrates have one heart, but octopuses are equipped with three: one that pumps blood throughout the octopus's body (including the animal's arms), and two that pump blood through the gills that they use to breathe underwater. There is another key difference from vertebrates: the main component of octopus blood is hemocyanin, which contains copper atoms, rather than iron-containing hemoglobin, which explains the blue color of octopus blood.

6. Octopuses use three modes of locomotion

A bit like an underwater sports car, the octopus moves with three different ways. If there is no need to rush, they walk along the ocean floor using their flexible tentacle arms. To move faster underwater, they actively swim in the desired direction, bending their arms and body. In the event of a real hurry (for example, an attack by a hungry shark), octopuses use jet propulsion, throwing a stream of water (and ink to disorient the predator) from the body cavity and move away as quickly as possible.

7. Octopuses are masters of camouflage

Octopus skin is covered with three types of specialized cells that can quickly change color, reflectivity and transparency, allowing the animal to blend into its environment. Pigment-containing cells - chromatophores - are responsible for the red, orange, yellow, brown, white and black colors of the skin, and also give it shine, which is ideal for camouflage. Thanks to this arsenal of cells, some octopuses are able to disguise themselves as algae!

8. The giant octopus is considered the largest species of octopus

Forget all the movies about octopus monsters with tentacles as thick as tree trunks that sweep helpless sailors overboard and drown them. big ships. The biggest known species octopus - giant octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini), weighs on average about 15 kg, and the length of the arms (tentacles) is about 3-4 m. However, there is some dubious evidence of significantly larger individuals giant octopus, weighing more than 200 kg.

9. Octopuses have a very short lifespan

You may want to reconsider buying an octopus as a pet because most species have a lifespan of about a year. Evolution has programmed male octopuses to die within weeks of mating, and females stop feeding while waiting for the eggs to hatch, and often starve to death. Even if you sterilize your octopuses (most likely, not every veterinarian in your city specializes in such operations), it is unlikely that your pet will live longer than that of a hamster or gerbil mouse.

10. The octopus order has another name

You may have noticed that in this article only one term was used, “octopuses,” which is familiar to everyone and does not hurt the ears. But this order of cephalopods is also known as octopus (octopus in Greek means “eight legs”).

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Titles: common octopus, common octopus, common Atlantic octopus, European octopus, octopus.

Area: octopuses are distributed throughout the world: Mediterranean Sea, Eastern Atlantic Ocean, Japanese Sea.

Description: The octopus's body is short, soft, and oval at the back. The mouth opening is located where its tentacles meet, and the anal opening opens under the mantle. The robe resembles a wrinkled leather bag. The octopus's mouth is equipped with two powerful jaws, similar to the beak of a parrot. There is a grater in the throat that helps to grind food. The head bears eight long tentacles - “arms”. In males, one tentacle is modified into a copulatory organ. The “hands” are connected to each other by a thin membrane and equipped with suction cups. On all eight tentacles of an adult octopus there are about 2000 of them, each of which has a holding force of about 100 g. On each “arm” there are up to 10 thousand taste buds that determine whether an object is edible or inedible. The eyes are large, with a lens similar to that of a human. The pupil is rectangular. There is no hearing. The octopus breathes through gills, but without harming its health, it can be out of water for a short time. The brain is highly developed and has a rudimentary cortex. The octopus has three hearts: one (the main one) drives blue blood throughout the body, and the other two - gills - push the blood through the gills.

Color: The octopus has the ability to change color to adapt to its environment. This is explained by the presence in his skin of cells with various pigments that, under the influence of impulses from the central nervous system stretch or contract depending on the perception of the senses. The usual color is brown. If the octopus is scared, it turns white; if it is angry, it turns red.

Size: on average up to 90 cm in length (including tentacles), maximum length in males up to 1.3 m, in females - up to 1.2 m.

Weight: 4.5-7 kg, Weight Limit 10 kg.

Lifespan: rarely exceeds 4 years, on average 12-24 months.

Habitat : the octopus lives in all tropical, subtropical seas and oceans (with a salinity of at least 30%), from shallow water to a depth of 100-150 m. Prefers rocky coastal zones, looking for caves and crevices in the rocks for habitat.

Enemies: dolphins, sea lions, whales, seals, moray eels, eels, sharks, birds.

Food/food: octopus is a predator, hunts while sitting in ambush. Eats mollusks, snails, crustaceans, fish, plankton. It captures prey with all eight tentacles. The octopus bites the victim with its beak, holding it with its suction cups. At the same time the poison salivary glands from the throat and mouth enters the wound. Individual preferences in food and in the method of obtaining it are strongly expressed.

Behavior: The octopus leads a bottom-dwelling lifestyle, living among stones, rocks and algae. During the day it is less active than at night, so it is considered a nocturnal animal. Timid, when a diver or scuba diver approaches, he usually hides under stones. He keeps his home clean: he sweeps it with a stream of water from a funnel, and puts scraps outside in a garbage heap. It drags into the hole everything it finds at the bottom: the main thing is that the entrance is narrow and wide inside. It even lives in boxes, cans, tires and rubber boots. Becomes aggressive during mating. When enemies approach, it flees, hiding in rock crevices and under stones. Octopuses have protective device- autotomy: a tentacle grabbed by an enemy can come off due to strong contraction of the muscles, which in this case tear themselves apart. The most "smart" among all invertebrates: amenable to training, has good memory, distinguishes geometric shapes. Winters in more deep waters, and in summer moves to shallow water.

Social structure: loner, territorial. Often lives next to octopuses of the same size as him.

Reproduction: The length of the mantle in adult males is about 9.5 cm, in females - 13.5 cm. An octopus can mate within several hours. During reproduction, the male removes spermatophores from the mantle cavity and transfers them to the mantle cavity of the female. The nest is a hole in the ground, lined with a rampart of stones and shells. The eggs are spherical, connected in groups (8-20 pieces each). After fertilization, the female makes a nest in a hole or cave in shallow water, where she lays up to 80 thousand eggs. The female always takes care of the eggs: she constantly ventilates them, passing water through the so-called siphon. She uses her tentacles to remove foreign objects and dirt. During the entire period of egg development, the female remains at the nest, without food, and often dies of starvation.

Breeding season/period: There are two peaks of reproduction. In the Mediterranean and Sea of ​​Japan, the first peak occurs in April, the second in October; V West Africa, the first peak in June, the second in September.

Incubation: depends on temperature and egg size. On average 4-5 months.

Offspring: Newborn octopuses feed on plankton for the first 45-60 days and lead a benthic lifestyle. After forty days they reach 12 mm. In the Sea of ​​Japan, at the age of 4 months, young octopuses weigh about 1 kg. Only 1-2 young octopuses out of two hundred thousand survive to sexual maturity.

Benefit/harm for humans: The octopus is used as food and is a commercial item.

In total there are about 300 species of octopuses and all of them are truly amazing creatures. They live in subtropical and tropical seas and oceans, from shallow waters to a depth of 200 m. They prefer rocky shores and are considered the most intelligent among all invertebrates. The more scientists learn about octopuses, the more they admire them.

1. An octopus's brain is donut-shaped.

2. The octopus does not have a single bone, this allows it to penetrate into a hole that is 4 times smaller than its own size.

3. Because large quantity copper octopus blood is blue.

4. The tentacles contain more than 10,000 taste buds.

5. Octopuses have three hearts. One of them drives blue blood throughout the body, and the other two carry it through the gills.

6. In case of danger, octopuses, like lizards, are able to throw away their tentacles, breaking them on their own.

7. Octopuses disguise themselves as environment, changing its color. When calm they are brown, when frightened they turn white, and when angry they acquire a reddish tint.

8. To hide from enemies, octopuses emit a cloud of ink; it not only reduces visibility, but also masks odors.

9. Octopuses breathe with gills, but they can also long time spend outside the water.

10. Octopuses have rectangular pupils.

11. Octopuses always keep their home clean; they “sweep” it with a stream of water from their funnel, and put the remaining food in a specially designated place nearby.

12. Octopuses are intelligent invertebrates that can be trained, remember their owners, recognize shapes and have an amazing ability to unscrew jars.

13. Speaking about the unsurpassed intelligence of octopuses, we can recall the world-famous octopus-oracle Paul, who guessed the outcome of matches involving the German football team. Actually, he lived in the Oberhausen Aquarium. Paul died, as oceanologists suggest, of natural causes. There was even a monument erected to him at the entrance to the aquarium.

14. The personal life of sea creatures is not very happy. Males often become victims of females, and they, in turn, rarely survive after childbirth and doom their offspring to an orphaned life.

15. There is only one species of octopus - the Pacific striped one, which, unlike its fellows, is an exemplary family man. He lives in a couple for several months and throughout this time he performs something very similar to a kiss, touching his mouth with his other half. After the birth of the offspring, the mother spends more than one month with the children, taking care of them and raising them.

16. This same Pacific striped fish boasts an unusual hunting style. Before the attack, he lightly pats his victim “on the shoulder,” as if warning, but this does not increase his chances of survival, so the purpose of the habit still remains a mystery.

17. During reproduction, males use their tentacles to remove spermatophores “from behind the sinus” and carefully place them in the mantle cavity of the female.

18. On average, octopuses live 1-2 years; those who live up to 4 years are long-livers.

19. The smallest octopuses grow up to only 1 centimeter, and the largest up to 4 meters. The largest octopus was caught off the coast of the United States in 1945, its weight was 180 kg and its length was as much as 8 meters.

20. Scientists managed to decipher the octopus genome. In the future, this will help to establish how they managed to evolve into such an intelligent creature and understand the origin of amazing cognitive abilities. On this moment It is known that the length of the octopus genome is 2.7 billion base pairs, it is almost equal to the length of the human genome, which has 3 billion base pairs.

Octopuses, eight-legged and surprisingly intelligent Marine life, have a knack for interior design. These creatures are like wildlife, and in captivity, they decorate the space in front of the entrance to their homes. They often settle in rock caves and from there hunt their prey - mollusks, crabs, scallops, shrimp and other crustaceans.

After eating their victims, they sprinkle the remains - shellfish shells and crab skeletons - on the ground in front of the entrances to their caves. They also sometimes crawl along the bottom in search of beautiful shells. Octopuses are masters of camouflage, but divers use these decorations to track them down.

Polina Kormshchikova

10 amazing facts about octopuses

1. Octopuses have three hearts: one (the main one) drives blue blood throughout the body, and the other two - gills - push the blood through the gills.

2. Octopuses are capable of perceiving infrasound. They also hear ordinary sounds, despite the absence of ears.

3. Octopuses are capable of throwing away a tentacle, breaking it on their own in case of danger, just as lizards throw away their tail.

4. Octopuses breathe through gills, but being out of water for a long time does not cause them serious harm.

5. Octopuses have rectangular pupils.

6. A frightened octopus turns white, an angry one turns red.

7. Octopus testicles are located in the head.

8. Octopuses are considered by many zoopsychologists to be the most “smart” among all invertebrates in many respects: they are trainable, have a good memory, distinguish geometric shapes - a small square is distinguished from a larger one; a rectangle placed vertically from a rectangle placed horizontally; a circle from a square, a rhombus from a triangle. They get to know people and get used to those who feed them. If you spend enough time with an octopus, it becomes tame. Excellent trainees.

9. Octopuses are clean people: they “sweep” their home with a stream of water from a funnel, and put scraps outside in a trash heap.

10. In some countries (for example, Japan), octopuses are eaten alive. They are cut into thin pieces and eaten within a few minutes while the tentacle muscles continue to convulse.

Source: ru.wikipedia.org

During reproduction, the tentacle of the Argonaut octopus, having captured the sperm, itself swims away to look for a female

It turns out that octopuses are much smarter than expected - their limbs react to pain and touch even after separation from the body, and these are not post-mortem convulsions, but full-fledged reflexes.