{"id":340056,"date":"2025-12-10T01:11:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T01:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/340056\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T01:11:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T01:11:08","slug":"super-rare-seven-limbed-octopus-found-on-shore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/340056\/","title":{"rendered":"Super-rare seven-limbed octopus found on shore"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a Sep-olopod.<\/p>\n

Researchers were flabbergasted after the remains of an ultra-rare seven-armed octopus washed ashore in Collieston, Scotland, as seen in photos making waves online.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese were something we clearly hadn\u2019t seen before,\u201d Catriona Reid, manager of the Forvie National Nature Reserve where the odd-legged critter was found, told the BBC.<\/a><\/p>\n

A beachcomber had reportedly stumbled upon the tentacles of the anomalously appendaged critter on Aberdeenshire beach on November 30.<\/p>\n

\"GiantThe cartoonishly big tentacle was found at Forvie National Nature Reserve in Collieston, Scotland. Catriona Reid\/NatureScot \/ SWNS<\/p>\n

They alerted the reserve\u2019s staff, per Reid, who noted the maritime oddity\u2019s \u201clarge diameter and big suckers,\u201d which were \u201cfar too big for the common curled octopus\u201d generally spotted in the area.<\/p>\n

In fact, there was initially some speculation that the suckers belonged to the elusive giant squid. <\/p>\n

After sending photos of the mystery critter to several institutions, including Aberdeen University\u2019s zoology department, the team was able to identify it as a seven-armed octopus.<\/p>\n

\"Tentacle.\"\u201cIt may have been trawl-caught and thrown back, or predated on by a whale,\u201d said Dr. Lauren Smith. Catriona Reid\/NatureScot \/ SWNS<\/p>\n

Also known as the blob octopus or septopus, the mollusk is one of the largest octopuses on the planet, capable of attaining lengths of around 11 feet long, Livescience reported<\/a>. <\/p>\n

They reside in deep waters below 1,640 feet beneath the surface and are so rare that only four have been seen alive in the last 40 years \u2014 the most recent was filmed by a remotely-piloted vehicle in Monterey Bay, California, last month.<\/p>\n

The septopus\u2019s name is a bit of a misnomer, as they actually do have eight limbs. But the males generally hide their eighth limb \u2014 a reproductive organ used to fertilize eggs \u2014 in a sac behind their right eye.<\/p>\n

Dr. Lauren Smith, a marine biologist at research organization Saltwater Life, called the flotsam \u201can extraordinary find,\u201d although she remained perplexed over how such a denizen of the deep washed ashore.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may have been trawl-caught and thrown back, or predated on by a whale,\u201d she told the Daily Mail<\/a>. \u201cOr somehow it found its way into the shallow waters and become disoriented then predated on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith said that the \u201crecovered remains have been frozen down for further study, with some potentially being preserved as museum specimens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a Sep-olopod. Researchers were flabbergasted after the remains of an ultra-rare seven-armed octopus washed ashore in Collieston,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[1147,6202,79,9121,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-340056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-ocean","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}