Creature Feature: Octo-what?
Posted By Abigail Smigel on 28 January 2004
Ah yes, the Octopus, one of my all time favorite underwater critters. Their intelligence and multitude of fun facts have always intrigued me, but for years one question has plagued me dive in and dive out. Upon choosing our eight armed friends as the topic of this article, I determined it was high time I got to the bottom of the mystery. So I grabbed my prescription dive mask and jumped into the Batfishmobile to figure out this pressing question:
"Are three of these critters known as Octopuses, Octopi, Octopeese or what?"
(I’d like to take this opportunity to add an addendum to my last article on jellies. A group of our gelatinous friends is more properly referred to as a "fluther." Who would’ve thought?!)
So after hours of Googling, I determined that "Octopods" was the proper term for more than one Octopus. However, Octopodes and Octopuses are as well, and so is Octopi, a word that is so often improperly used it has become correct scientific jargon. So, I’ll try to make use of each one and all schools of thought will be mollified.
Octopods are recognized under the phylum Mollusca, which includes snails, nudibranchs, clams, oysters, mussels, as well as a few others. They are further classified under the class Cephalopoda. The word Cephalopoda is derived from the Greek words, "ceph," which means head, and "pod," which means foot. The class Cephalopoda includes squid, cuttlefish, nautilus, as well as Octopods; animals that all have their "heads" attached to their "feet." These nomenclaturists were onto something. However, we marine biology nerds prefer to call the "head" the mantle and the "feet" the arms. And while we’re on it, the word Octopus is derived from the Greek language as well, "okto" being the number 8 and "pous" meaning feet. I hope I’m not offending your knowledge of sea life by mentioning that all Octopods have eight arms.
The more than 250 known species of Octopi occur in all parts of the world’s oceans. The largest and smallest known species of Octopuses are both found off the West Coast of the United States. The largest known species is the North Pacific Octopus that grows to a maximum size of over 30 feet and an impressive weight of 100 pounds! The smallest known species is the Californian Octopus, which only reaches about one inch in length.
Notoriously shy and mysterious, certainly there are more species of Octopods that have eluded scientist’s probing eyes. Recently a deep water Octopus was discovered, and affectionately dubbed "Dumbo." The scientific name is Grimpoteuthis, but the common name that describes the ear-like swimming flaps seems more fitting. Recently while working offshore during an oceanographic survey, we pulled one of our seafloor instruments on deck, only to discover that we had a stowaway. Turns out that this eight-legged hitchhiker responds to the name Dumbo! He was a bit shaken from the journey to the surface from hundreds of meters down, but was still alive as we slid him back into his aquatic domain.
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