New giant octopus discovered off Alaska

A group of American scientists found species with frill in coastal Alaska.

The researchers identified a new octopus and described it in the American Malacological Bulletin. They named it the Pacific giant octopus with frills , the IFL Science reported yesterday.

Weighing up to 71kg, the giant Pacific octopus is the largest octopus known to researchers. Living in oxygen-rich coastal areas south of the Pacific Ocean, distributed from southern California to Alaska and down to the Korean peninsula, this mollusk possesses impressive size thanks to eating small shrimps and crabs. and lobster.

Pacific giant octopus has frills.(Photo: Alaska Octopus Project).

With such a wide range of distribution, scientists are not surprised to find the giant Pacific octopus actually consists of at least two separate species. In fact, researchers have speculated that two species have been different since 2012. At that time, they conducted a small genetic study of giant squid that resides in coastal Alaska.

They found that the collected DNA samples indicated two genetically distinct populations living in these cold waters. But because the specimen was taken from a tissue sample on dead octopus fragments, there was no way to confirm the genetic difference that was associated with the difference in appearance, helping to confirm that it was actually two species. individually or not.

After a few years, researchers Nathan Hollenbeck and David Scheel at Alaska Pacific University decided to find out. Through collecting octopus to live in the net of shrimp fishermen in Prince William Sound, Alaska, they not only obtained more DNA samples but also successfully built morphological data about their external appearance.

The research team discovered genetic differences mentioned in the previous study and concluded that outside the giant octopus, there was another octopus with columns of valances that protruded along the body and the frill around the eyes looked a bit like eyelash. Therefore, Hollenbeck and Scheel called them Pacific giant octopus with frills.

Although officially recognized by scientists for the first time, the new octopus is no stranger to those who live around Alaska waters. About a third of the giant octopus mixed into the net of fishermen of this species, proving that they are quite common. The team thinks that they live in the ocean more than the regular giant octopus and that is why they are now recognized.