octopus

Stories 1 - 20 |  Next >>

For the British, It's an Octopus Invasion
Amid Octopus Invasion, Some
UK Fishermen Are 'Terrified'
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Oct 5, 2025 2:01 PM CDT

Amid Octopus Invasion, Some UK Fishermen Are 'Terrified'

Shellfish stocks dwindle as climate change shifts marine balance off England's southern coast

(Newser) - Octopuses have unexpectedly taken center stage along England's southern coast, leaving some fishermen delighted and others anxious. Trawlers like Arthur Dewhirst's have seen a surge in octopus hauls, with such catches sometimes boosting weekly earnings by more than $13,000. The cephalopod boom has made Brixham, host...

Octopus Study Left One Biologist 'in Awe'
Octopus Study Left
One Biologist 'in Awe'
new study
Sep 13, 2025 4:30 PM CDT

Octopus Study Left One Biologist 'in Awe'

Researchers managed to analyze their limb use in the wild

(Newser) - Humans may be right-handed or left-handed. It turns out octopuses don't have a dominant arm, but they do tend to perform some tasks more often with their front arms, new research shows. Scientists studied a series of short videos of wild octopuses crawling, swimming, standing, fetching, and groping—among...

Behold, the 'Sharktopus'
Shark's Orange
'Hat' Leaves
Researchers
Stunned
in case you missed it
Mar 29, 2025 4:15 PM CDT

Shark's Orange 'Hat' Leaves Researchers Stunned

It was actually an octopus, making this a 'sharktopus' sighting

(Newser) - "One of the best things about being a marine scientist is that you never know what you might see next in the sea," writes Rochelle Constantine of the University of Auckland, who did not expect to come across an octopus riding a shark. That's exactly what researchers...

Male Blue-Lined Octopuses Use Venomous Mating Strategy
Male Blue-Lined Octopuses
Paralyze Females to Mate
new study
Mar 16, 2025 11:30 AM CDT

Male Blue-Lined Octopuses Paralyze Females to Mate

They use 'high-precision bite' to inject neurotoxin before mating

(Newser) - Female black widows sometimes eat their mates after copulation. Female praying mantises are known for biting off the male's head. Scientists now say male blue-lined octopuses avoid a similar fate because of an aggressive defensive measure: They bite the larger females and inject them with venom near the aorta...

In This Hunting Party, Octopus Acts as Punching Enforcer

Animals shown to hunt prey with fish, who do the searching for them

(Newser) - The octopus is viewed as a solitary, if not antisocial, creature, known to keep a distance from its own brethren, but new research suggests at least one species has quite the social life. Researchers recorded 120 hours of footage of 13 big blue octopuses roaming a Red Sea reef off...

Octopuses Are Typically Solitary, Yet Thousands Gather Here
Octopus Researchers Crack
Mystery of Meeting Place
NEW STUDY
Aug 24, 2023 11:52 AM CDT

Octopus Researchers Crack Mystery of Meeting Place

Spot off the California coast is a mating and nesting ground

(Newser) - Two miles below the surface of the ocean some 80 miles off central California sits the world's largest known assembly of octopuses. This "octopus garden," featuring thousands of the typically solitary mollusks, stunned researchers who discovered it on the foothills of an inactive underwater volcano in 2018....

Scientists Find a Rare 'Octopus Nursery'

Site off Costa Rica is only the third such site known to exist (by humans)

(Newser) - Researchers exploring the ocean floor off the coast of Costa Rica discovered an incredibly rare thing: an octopus nursery. The deep-sea area is exactly what it sounds like—a place where brooding octopuses gather to hatch their eggs, reports NPR . The discovery brings the number of known octopus nurseries in...

Diver Captures Amazing Giant Octopus Encounter
Diver Captures 'Mind-Blowing'
Giant Octopus Encounter
in case you missed it
Nov 13, 2022 7:13 AM CST

Diver Captures 'Mind-Blowing' Giant Octopus Encounter

It 'was giving me a hug,' she says

(Newser) - Canadian high school teacher Andrea Humphreys has done almost 700 dives, and she says she's never experienced anything as "mind-blowing" as her encounter with a giant Pacific octopus. She says that when she started filming the creature during a dive off the east coast of Vancouver Island, it...

First Octopus Arrived Before the First Dinosaur
Octopus That Predated
Dinos Is Named After Biden
new study
Mar 8, 2022 5:00 PM CST

Octopus That Predated Dinos Is Named After Biden

Newly dated 'Syllipsimopodi bideni' fossil goes back 330M years

(Newser) - Scientists have found the oldest known ancestor of octopuses—an approximately 330 million-year-old fossil unearthed in Montana. The researchers concluded the ancient creature lived millions of years earlier than previously believed, meaning that octopuses originated before the era of dinosaurs, per the AP . The 4.7-inch fossil has 10 limbs—...

UK Set to Acknowledge These Creatures Have Feelings

Crab, octopus, and other cephalopods, decapods, vertebrates to be classified as sentient beings

(Newser) - A bill designating octopus, lobster, crab, and other animals as sentient beings capable of experiencing feelings and sensations including pain and distress, now moving through the UK parliament , could transform how such animals are treated in the country. The bill, which would see the creation of an Animal Sentience Committee...

Female Octopuses Will Throw Stuff at Bothersome Males
Most Animals Don't Throw.
Female Octopuses Do
new study
Sep 1, 2021 11:56 AM CDT

Most Animals Don't Throw. Female Octopuses Do

Behavior was spotted among octopuses off Australia

(Newser) - When female octopuses are trying to keep males at bay, they throw stuff. Sometimes. So found a study that has yet to be peer-reviewed. Researchers from the US, Canada, and Australia say their finding builds on research done in 2015, in which they recorded wild octopuses in Jervis Bay off...

'Angriest Octopus' Goes After Swimmer

That's one too many scary beasts in Australia for some

(Newser) - A man was taking a dip in sunny Australia—which we might as well call the land of beasts—when he was attacked by the "angriest octopus." Lance Karlson, a geologist and former lifeguard, was walking along the shores of Geographe Bay in Dunsborough, Western Australia, on March...

Octopuses Seem to Enjoy Randomly Punching Fish
On the Ocean Floor,
Surprising Sucker Punches
new study
Dec 28, 2020 10:35 AM CST

On the Ocean Floor, Surprising Sucker Punches

'I laughed out loud,' says researcher who documented behavior of octopuses toward fish

(Newser) - "This was probably the most fun I had writing a paper," writes Eduardo Sampaio of the University of Lisbon. And the study in the journal Ecology is indeed a weird one: Sampaio and his team observed that octopuses appear to sucker punch fishes, reports Gizmodo . You can see...

Scientists Didn't Expect This on the Ocean Floor

The 'Dumbo' octopus just defied expectations

(Newser) - Imagine going deep underwater, spotting strange creatures in the dark—and making a first-ever find. That's what researchers say happened when they spotted a so-called "Dumbo" octopus on the Indian Ocean floor for the first time, Science Times reports. The white cephalopod, named after Disney's Dumbo for...

Octopus Filmed Trying to Drown Bald Eagle

Both animals survive thanks to BC fish farmers

(Newser) - It was bald eagle vs. octopus in what was likely to be a battle to the death. Then a group of Canadians intervened. The salmon farmers were on the water near Quatsino, BC, at the northwest tip of Vancouver Island on Monday when they heard "a lot of splashing...

Woman Who Put Octopus on Her Face: 'This Was Not a Good Idea'

Jamie Bisceglia was trying to win a photo contest. Then the octopus bit her.

(Newser) - We shouldn't have to tell people not to put octopuses on their faces, but here we are. It's a fact that Jamie Bisceglia herself now acknowledges, despite having done just that last week and suffering the consequences. HuffPost reports that the Washington state woman was participating in a...

Scuba Jaunt Takes Frightening Turn for This Diver

Giant octopus latches onto him in Sea of Japan

(Newser) - If ever there were a video that makes us glad we're safe on our sofa and not floating in the ocean, this would be it. News.com.au reports the clip comes out of the Sea of Japan, where a Russian scuba diver swimming around the Garrow Peninsula is...

Cops: Driver Crashed Car While Trying to Avoid 'Octopus'

Not a great defense when you're 3 miles inland

(Newser) - A UK driver whose vehicle landed upside down in a ditch swerved "to avoid an octopus" on the road—or so police say he claimed. The 49-year-old, who escaped major injury, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs on Tuesday after police found no sign...

Ecstasy May Affect Octopuses in Same Way It Affects Humans
Ecstasy
May Make
Octopuses
Cuddly
study says
Sep 20, 2018 2:57 PM CDT

Ecstasy May Make Octopuses Cuddly

New study finds octopuses appear to get more social after being dosed with MDMA

(Newser) - What happens when an octopus takes ecstasy? Apparently, the same thing that happens to humans—at least according to a new, admittedly small study run by Gül Dölen, a neuroscientist at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Ecstasy, also known as MDMA, makes people feel more sociable, less...

Fish Seller Buys Octopus for Unexpected Reason

Giovanni DeGarimore feels a connection with the creature

(Newser) - A California fish-market owner bought an octopus and set it free because he feels a certain affinity with cephalopods, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Giovanni DeGarimore, owner of Giovanni's Fish Market in Morro Bay, bought the 70-pounder earlier this month for a couple hundred dollars from a local crab...

Stories 1 - 20 |  Next >>
Most Read on Newser