Jelly Belly: Elusive Deep Sea Octopus Takes Its Gelatinous Meals To Go - Science Sushi
By Christie Wilcox | March 31, 2017 7:50 pm A female seven-arm octopus carrying an egg-yolk jelly. Photo © MBARI The seven-arm octopus, Haliphron atlanticus , lives a hidden life deep in the dark depths of the oceans. These massive cephalopods—females of which can grow to be more than 12 feet long—earned the moniker for their habit of folding one of their eight arms away. What little is known of their daily lives has largely been gleaned from dead animals pulled from the sea by trawls, as inhabitants of the deep sea, their activities are nearly impossible to observe. Now, a new paper in Scientific Reports provides insights into their diet and behavior, finding they prefer to dine on species we tend to think of as less than palatable: jellyfish. Scientists from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) used remotely operated vehicles (R...