''Amphioctopus marginatus'', also known as the coconut octopus and veined octopus, is a medium-sized

cephalopod A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda ( Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head ...

belonging to the genus ''

Amphioctopus ''Amphioctopus'' is a genus of octopuses comprising around 16 species. Description Members of the genus ''Amphioctopus'' reside in tropical and subtropical waters. These octopuses are found primarily in the Pacific and Indian Oceans but re ...

''. It is found in tropical waters of the western

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

. It commonly preys upon

shrimp Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are ref ...

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all th ...

s, and

clam Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds. Clams have two shel ...

s, and displays unusual behavior including bipedal walking and

tool use Tool use by animals is a phenomenon in which an animal uses any kind of tool in order to achieve a goal such as acquiring food and water, grooming, defence, communication, recreation or construction. Originally thought to be a skill possessed o ...

(gathering

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the f ...

shells and seashells and using these for shelter).

Size and description

The main body of the

octopus An octopus ( : octopuses or octopodes, see below for variants) is a soft-bodied, eight- limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, ...

is normally long and including the arms, approximately long. The octopus displays a typical color pattern with dark ramified lines similar to veins, usually with a yellow

siphon A siphon (from grc, σίφων, síphōn, "pipe, tube", also spelled nonetymologically syphon) is any of a wide variety of devices that involve the flow of liquids through tubes. In a narrower sense, the word refers particularly to a tube in a ...

. The arms are usually dark in color, with contrasting white suckers. In many color displays, a lighter trapezoidal area can be seen immediately below the eye.

Behavior and habits

The coconut octopus is found on sandy bottoms in bays or lagoons. It frequently buries itself in the sand with only its eyes uncovered. In March 2005, researchers at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

, published an article in ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence ...

'' in which ''A. marginatus'' was reported to show

bipedal Bipedalism is a form of terrestrial locomotion where an organism moves by means of its two rear limbs or legs. An animal or machine that usually moves in a bipedal manner is known as a biped , meaning 'two feet' (from Latin ''bis'' 'double' ...

locomotion. It is one of only two octopus species known to display such behavior, the other species being ''

Abdopus aculeatus ''Abdopus aculeatus'' is a small octopus species in the order Octopoda. ''A. aculeatus'' has the common name of algae octopus due to its typical resting camouflage, which resembles a gastropod shell overgrown with algae. It is small in size with ...

''. The authors discovered this behavior in an area off

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

, where the sandy bottom was littered with coconut shells. The bipedal motion appears to mimic a floating

. Researchers from the

Melbourne Museum The Melbourne Museum is a natural and cultural history museum located in the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia. Located adjacent to the Royal Exhibition Building, the museum was opened in 2000 as a project of the Government of Victoria, ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

claimed the coconut octopus uses tools for concealment and defense by gathering available debris to create a defensive fortress. This behavior was observed in individuals in

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and ...

and

North Sulawesi North Sulawesi ( id, Sulawesi Utara) is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the Minahasa Peninsula of Sulawesi, south of the Philippines and southeast of Sabah, Malaysia. It borders the Philippine province of Davao Occidental and Socc ...

in Indonesia.. The researchers filmed the octopus collecting coconut half-shells discarded by humans from the sea floor. They were then carried up to and arranged around the body of the octopus to form a spherical hiding place similar to a clam-shell.

References

External links

*
Octopus uses coconuts
- Video via EducatedEarth
''Octopus marginatus''
at

National Center for Biotechnology Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is part of the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is approved and funded by the government of the United States. Th ...

(NCBI) ;News
BBC article with video

Guardian article with video

Video using 2 sea shells as a defense shelter
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q139978 Octopodidae Tool-using animals Molluscs described in 1964

Size and description

Behavior and habits

See also

References

External links