Octopolis and Octlantis are two non-human settlements occupied by gloomy octopuses (''Octopus tetricus'') in

Jervis Bay Jervis Bay () is a oceanic bay and village on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, said to possess the whitest sand in the world. A area of land around the southern headland of the bay is a territory of the Commonwealth of Austral ...

, on the south coast of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. The first site, named "Octopolis" by biologists, was found in 2009. Octopolis consists of a bed of

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

s (mainly

scallop shell Scallop () is a common name that encompasses various species of marine bivalve mollusks in the taxonomic family Pectinidae, the scallops. However, the common name "scallop" is also sometimes applied to species in other closely related families w ...

s) in an ellipse shape, 2–3 meters diameter on its longer axis, with a single piece of anthropogenic detritus, believed to be scrap metal, within the site. Octopuses build dens by burrowing into the shell bed. The shells appear to provide a much better building material for the octopuses than the fine sediment around the site. Up to 14 octopuses have been seen at Octopolis at a single time. In 2016, a second settlement was found nearby, named "Octlantis," which includes no human-made objects and can house similar numbers of octopuses. Both sites are within

Booderee National Park Booderee National Park and Botanic Gardens, formerly Jervis Bay National Park and Jervis Bay Botanic Gardens, are located in the Jervis Bay Territory of Australia. The reserve is composed of two sections: * the Bherwerre Peninsula, on the souther ...

. Some media accounts have described these sites as octopus "cities," but researchers who have worked on the sites view this as a misleading analogy.

References

External links

* * {{Octopus-stub Octopuses Populated places in New South Wales Teuthology Underwater

See also

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Further reading

External links