Rare, nine-armed octopus found off the coast of Japan

KOMPAS.com – Usually octopus only has eight arm. However, it is different from what was found in this octopus.

Kazuya Sato, a seaweed farmer who set traps, accidentally caught nine-octopus octopus at Shizugawa Bay in the northeast of Minamisanriku city, Japan on 13 November.

As quoted from Live Science, Saturday (12/12/2020) he realized that when he brought home his catch and intended to cook octopus.

Also read: Animal Sundays: Like the Tongue, the Octopus Feels Prey Through Its Arms

He noticed that the octopus had an unusual appearance. Octopus turns out to have a ninth arm.

Even though the octopus is dead, its body is still intact. Sato immediately took him to the Shizugawa Nature Center after noticing the oddity.

Michael Vecchione, ahli zoology of invertebrates at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC who was not involved in the discovery said the extra arm on the octopus was attached to another arm and was not fully formed. Cases like this were unheard of.

According to Vecchione, octopus has the ability to regenerate its arms. But sometimes regeneration doesn’t work properly, so it’s not fully formed.

“If the arm is damaged, it may regenerate incorrectly. It could end up with extra tissue growing and the tissue can turn into an arm,” he explained.

However, another theory states that the appearance of nine arms on the octopus is the result of radiation poisoning.

Also read: Kamasutra Satwa: Male Octopus Sticks Penis in Partner’s Nose

Shizugawa Bay is about 200 kilometers north of the now decommissioned Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

The power plant experienced a nuclear crisis due to the earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale and the tsunami in 2011.

But Vecchione said there was no way the octopus’ ninth arm was caused by radiation poisoning.

Reports of octopuses with the added arm themselves have been cataloged around the world for years.

One such report in 1960 in the journal Nature described an octopus at the University of Miami’s Marine Laboratory as having an abnormal third, two-pronged left arm.

Furthermore, octopuses with multiple arms may face more challenges. For example affecting their ability to hunt or swim.

Also read: Finally, Scientists Know How An Octopus Feels Objects From Its Arms

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