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Common Octopus — printable fact sheet
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Common Octopus
Octopus vulgaris
Octopus vulgaris runs on a body plan so unlike ours that almost every organ is a surprise: three hearts, of which two push blood through the gills and one drives it round the body, and blood that is blue because it carries oxygen on copper-based haemocyanin rather than iron. Of …
Did you know?
- When threatened, the Common Octopus can eject a cloud of dark ink to confuse predators and escape.
- An octopus can taste with its suckers — the rim of each sucker carries chemoreceptors that detect molecules on contact, so it effectively licks whatever it touches. It squeezes through any gap wider than its beak, the only hard part of its body, which is why a 20 kg animal can exit through a hole the size of a coin. Captive individuals learn to open jars, recognise individual keepers, and have been recorded deliberately squirting water at lights they dislike. Their arms are covered in a chemical coating that stops the suckers gripping their own skin, which is how the animal avoids tying itself in knots.
What I learned
Draw the common octopus
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