Octopus jumps on the seabed 4,800m deep

Scientists have filmed a big-eyed jellyhead octopus spreading its arms and inflating its underside to leap across the Pacific Ocean floor.

Octopus jumps on the seabed 4,800m deep. (Video: Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre)

The deep ocean holds many mysteries. The creatures there live strange lives, completely different from those on the surface. A team from the University of Western Australia encountered one of these strange creatures during a trans-Pacific expedition aboard the Dagon, Science Alert reported on October 28. They used underground laboratories to observe creatures living in the extremely cold temperatures, high pressures and eternal darkness of the deep sea.

At the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, a group of scientists recorded rare footage: Big-eyed jellyhead octopus ( Cirrothauma magna ) , a deep-sea finned octopus , jumping on the seabed at a depth of 4,800 m.

Experts don't know much about these animals. Their habitat is extremely difficult to access, so they are rarely observed in their natural deep-sea habitat.

A 1997 study in the journal Marine Biology provides some clues about this strange jumping behavior. The study describes observations of deep-sea finned octopuses jumping across the seafloor in a similar manner, and suggests that it is a form of locomotion.

However, this behavior may have another meaning. Experts have seen deep-sea finned octopuses jumping on the sea floor in shallower areas.

Big-eyed jellyhead octopus jumps on the floor of the Pacific Ocean.

In a study published last year in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences , marine scientist Alexey Golikov from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Germany and his colleagues described the feeding jumping behavior of the big-finned jellyhead octopus ( Cirroteuthis muelleri ) , also a deep-sea finned octopus. In the study, the scientists said, the animal performed the same sequence of movements as in the new video of the big-eyed jellyhead octopus.

First, the octopus leaps off the seafloor. At the top of each leap, it spreads its arms wide, inflating the membrane between its arms to land. During its descent, the octopus grabs whatever prey it can wrap around, then leaps again and repeats the sequence. These observations, collected between 2020 and 2022, mark the first time this feeding behavior has been observed and documented in a deep-sea finned octopus.

There is still a lot we don't know about life in the oceans. But what is becoming increasingly clear is that in the deepest, darkest, coldest parts of the ocean, incredible ecosystems still find a way to thrive.