La Jornada: Tiny blue octopus discovered in the Galapagos

Paris. Patrolling in the deep waters of the Galapagos Islands, a team of researchers found a new octopus, blue as the ocean but as small as a golf ball; a discovery that will expand knowledge about this amazing animal.

“It’s small! It’s blue!”: on the radio that broadcasts their comments, scientists from the Charles Darwin Foundation (CFD), who remotely control a submarine equipped with a camera, do not hide their excitement. At 1,773 meters deep, the device has just detected a surprising specimen of octopus.

“I immediately understood that it was special,” says Janet Voight, an invertebrate specialist at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, who was consulted by CDF experts to learn about the octopus species.

“First they contacted me to identify this species from photographs,” the researcher explains to AFP. “I was interested because the closest octopus in terms of size usually lives off the coast of Uruguay, in the Atlantic Ocean, near the 37th parallel south.” That is, on the other side of South America and in another ocean.

After capturing it, the scientists sent it to Chicago so Voight could analyze it.

When it arrived, preserved in a jar with formaldehyde, he says he thought: “My God, how beautiful it is.”

“I was afraid to handle it because I was afraid of damaging it,” the researcher admits.

When a new species is discovered, it must be carefully analyzed and usually opened with a scalpel. But with the help of their colleague Stephanie Smith of the Field Museum, they decided to scan the animal with X-rays to discover its secrets without harming it.

Coloring to protect yourself

The little blue octopus belongs to a new species of Microeledonefamily Megaleledonidaeand forces researchers to review what they thought they knew about this family. The members of this family are species endemic to the Southern Ocean, around Antarctica, and are characterized by their great corpulence.

The blue octopus, of the new species Microeledone galapagensishas “small robust tentacles, equipped with a single row of suction cups, which distinguishes it from most of the octopuses we know,” says Voight.

“Among the other species with short tentacles and a single row of suction cups, it is distinguished by its coloration and the smooth skin of its back,” he adds.

The blue octopus is “light on the dorsal side, but its ventral side is a very dark purple. We believe that this color pattern helps it protect itself,” he explains.

Thus, “if the octopus catches prey that emits light, it could attract predators that would risk eating it. Then the octopus covers its prey with its dark-colored membrane and stays safe.”

However, finding an unknown octopus is not unusual.

“They are often found in deep waters, especially in little-explored places. The last time I saw one in the sea was in December 2023, in the Pacific off Costa Rica, with the Schmidt Ocean Institute. Since then, I know they found others; I myself saw photos of one in December,” says the researcher.

Janet Voight’s work on the blue octopus was published in the magazine Zootaxa.