A video of an eight-armed blob meandering across the ocean with its "large" fins flapping at its side to help it move through the water is making rounds on the internet leaving netizens in awe.
The deep-sea species had no idea that an underwater robot was filming it as it swam by, according to the Miami Herald.
The Schmidt Ocean Institute posted a video of a dumbo octopus moving close to an undersea mountain off the coast of Chile on Facebook on February 15, and the footage was taken by the robot that was operated by experts.
Grimpoteuthis is a new genus that has never been observed in the Southeast Pacific, according to researchers, "indicating that the genus may live in a broader area of the ocean than initially thought."
“Dumbo octopuses are famous for their large fins (not ears, from which they get their nickname) on their mantle, used to gracefully ‘flap’ through the water as they swim,” the institute said in a Feb 16 Facebook post.
A single row of suckers covers the "webbed" arms of the species, as described by the Marine Bio Conservation Society. There are roughly two cirri, or fleshy, nipple-like structures, on each sucker. According to experts, the cirri helps the octopuses eat.
Grimpoteuthis live “basically at the bottom of the ocean,” experts with the society said. They feed on “worms, bivalves, copepods ad crustasceans.”
The small octopuses have “relatively short arms, a bell-shaped body (and) pale colouring,” according to National Geographic. They are “often called the cutest octopus in the world.”
The Schmidt Ocean Institute reported in a news release on February 22 that scientists may have discovered more than 100 new species during their mission.
“We far exceeded our hopes on this expedition,” Javier Sellanes, a researcher from Universidad Católica del Norte who led the expedition, said in the release. “These thriving and healthy ecosystems indicate that the Nazca-Desventuradas and Juan Fernández Marine Parks effectively protect delicate marine habitats.”
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