The octopus is a biological oddity. It can use tools, open jars, and its complex nervous system supports as many neurons as a ...

An octopus pumps blue, copper-based blood through three separate hearts, distributes most of its nerve cells across eight ...

When it comes to animal intelligence, octopuses have few rivals. Almost two decades ago in Germany, a particularly wily octopus named Otto short-circuited his aquarium’s electrical system by ...

Now, scientists have discovered that the California two-spot octopus (Octopus bimaculoides) can also learn to use mirrors, researchers report June 3 in Current Biology. When brainstorming octopus ...

Scientists have now shown that octopuses can learn to use mirror reflections to find food hidden from direct view. The resulting study suggests octopuses possess a more advanced level of spatial ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. This octopus survives in plain sight. Here’s how it adapts ...

When the Japanese artist Shimabuku was 31 years old, he took an octopus on a tour of Tokyo. After catching it from the sea with the help of a local fisherman in Akashi, a coastal city over 3 hours ...

In June 2025, the SciFri Book Club read Many Things Under a Rock: The Mysteries of Octopuses by David Scheel. Luckily, there is also a young readers edition, so you can learn about these amazing ...

The octopus just revealed another one of its secrets: what determines its sex. University of Oregon researchers have identified a sex chromosome in the California two-spot octopus. This chromosome has ...

This unassuming octopus pairs bacterial chemistry with evolutionary efficiency to deliver one of the most powerful defenses in all of the ocean. The blue-ringed octopus (genus Hapalochlaena) is small ...