A New Species of Tiny Octopus Was Discovered in the Galápagos Islands
Key takeaways
- The octopus was first spotted in 2015 during a deep-sea expedition aboard the research vessel E/V Nautilus.
- By performing a close inspection, the researchers were able to recover the blue octopus and film two other specimens, and then, at the end of the mission, conduct a thorough analysis.
- To overcome this problem, the authors used x-ray computed tomography to create and assemble thousands of CT micro-scans, which then allowed them to create a 3D model of the blue octopus, both internally and externally.
Why this matters: a development in AI with implications for how people work, create, and decide.
Courtesy Charles Darwin Foundation Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story. A tiny blue octopus that lives in the deep sea off the coast of the Galápagos Islands is so small that it can fit in the palm of a hand. And as a team of researchers coordinated by Chicago's Field Museum announced in a new study just published in the journal Zootaxa, it now has an official name—Microeledone galapagensis.
The octopus was first spotted in 2015 during a deep-sea expedition aboard the research vessel E/V Nautilus. From there, marine biologists used a remotely operated underwater vehicle (RoV) to explore the ocean floor near Darwin Island, at the northern end of the Galápagos archipelago. As the RoV's camera moved across the seafloor near an underwater slope at a depth of 1,773 meters (5,817 feet), they noticed the tiny octopus with its vibrant blue coloring.
By performing a close inspection, the researchers were able to recover the blue octopus and film two other specimens, and then, at the end of the mission, conduct a thorough analysis. It left them puzzled, however, as they were not certain which species it belonged to. So they contacted Field Museum expert Janet Voight, sending her a photo of the animal. “Right away, I knew it was something really special,” said Voight, lead author of the new study. “I’d never seen anything like it.” However, to determine whether an animal belongs to a new species requires a complete analysis of all its body parts, and since the blue octopus was the only one of its kind ever collected, the experts did not want to dissect and thus lose such a valuable specimen.