You'd Never Suspect an Octopus Was Lying on this Seafloor

[Judi Lynn]

By Tia Ghose, Senior Writer | November 22, 2017 03:03pm ET

- video at link -

A video of an octopus' hiding in plain sight before popping out to spook a diver has gone viral.

The video shows a nearly invisible octopus, seamlessly blending in with the seafloor, before turning white, floating up from its hiding place and transforming into what looks like a terrifying, bug-eyed sea monster.

It turns out that the octopus in the video belongs to a complex of species known as Octopus vulgaris, and is behaving very typically, said Roger Hanlon, a researcher at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, who studies cephalopod camouflage. Octopus vulgaris are found throughout the world's oceans, but are particularly common in the Caribbean, said James Wood, a marine biologist who runs the Cephalopod Page.

The amazing level of camouflage isn't surprising, as that's the main way the soft-bodied cephalopods manage to stay alive, said Mike Vecchione, a research zoologist, at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Marine Fisheries Service National Systematics Laboratory and the Smithsonian institution. [8 Crazy Facts About Octopuses]

More:
https://www.livescience.com/61011-octopus-hides-in-plain-sight-video.html?utm_source=notification

[Control-Z]

1. Amazing! eom

[dhill926]

2. they are incredibly intelligent animals....

with a rich emotional life. Too bad some of us continue to kill and eat them....

[irisblue]

3. Now I want to ask...

When you have an involuntary colonic evacuation in a wet suit....is the diver responsible for the flipping over & hosing out, or is there a way to sea rinse as you swim away.
Also...how did the octopus know that was scary AF?

Thanks Judi, that was cool and scary.

[Thor_MN]

6. A properly fitting wet suit doesn't flow water through it.

Its primary purpose is to trap a thin layer of water next to the skin and let it warm up. The water would be warmed up quite a bit in this case, but the suit is going to trap all that is inside...

Suits generally flip inside out as you take them off. My wet suits seem to shrink every year (I couldn't be growing, I'm not a teenager...) and peeling them off is as hard as stuffing me in.

[irisblue]

7. Well....damn....that creature was ....Unbelieveable...

[lastlib]

4. Watched a documentary about them recently--They are....

HIGHLY Intelligent creatures--in fact, among the most intelligent in the ocean! They can find their way through mazes better than all but the highest land animals. They can even figure out how to open jars with screw-on lids! Other than primates, no animal even has a concept of what they are, let alone how to open them. Amazing creatures!

[krispos42]

5. Holy crap, that looked like a really well done special effect

Amazing!