Octopus jumping on the seabed 4,800 m deep

The depths of the ocean contain many mysteries. The creatures there have strange lives, completely different from those on the surface. A research team from the University of Western Australia encountered one such strange creature during a trans-Pacific expedition on the Dagon, Science Alert reported on October 28. They use underground laboratories to observe creatures living in the extreme cold, high pressure and eternal darkness of the deep sea.

At the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, a group of scientists recorded rare footage: Big-eyed jellyhead octopus (Cirrothauma magna), belongs to the group of deep-sea finned octopuses, jumping on the seabed 4,800 m deep.

Experts do not understand much about this animal. Where they live is extremely difficult to reach, so they are rarely observed in their natural deep-sea habitat.

A study in the journal Marine Biology 1997 provides some clues about this strange jumping behavior. The study describes observations of deep-sea finned octopuses jumping on the seafloor in a similar way, and suggests that it is a form of locomotion.

However, this behavior can also have other meanings. Experts have seen deep-sea finned octopuses jumping on the seabed in shallower areas.

In research published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Last year, marine scientist Alexey Golikov from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research (Germany) and his colleagues described jumping foraging behavior in the large-finned jellyhead octopus (Cirroteuthis tumbari), also belongs to the group of deep-sea finned octopuses. In the study, the team of scientists said, the animal performed the same sequence of movements as in the new video of the big-eyed jellyhead octopus.

First, the octopus jumped up from the seabed. At the top of each jump, it spreads its arms, inflating the membrane between the arms to land. During landing, the octopus grabs any prey it can wrap around, then jumps up again and repeats the sequence of movements. The above observations were collected between 2020 and 2022, marking the first time this feeding behavior has been observed and recorded in a deep-sea finned octopus.

There are still many things people do not know about life in the oceans. But what is becoming increasingly clear is that, in the deepest, darkest and coldest parts of the ocean, incredible ecosystems still find ways to thrive.