New Octopus Species Discovered off the Coast of the Galapagos Islands
On July 1st, 2015, scientists were studying the Galapagos Islands, where scientist Charles Darwin made his famous discoveries about theory of evolution. The scientists discovered an unknown species of octopus that was relatively tiny, about the size of a golf ball, and it has a dazzling blue skin color you wouldn’t want to miss, in which most octopi in that region are either white, pink, or reddish. Furthermore, It does not have an inc sack, which most octopi do. The islands were well known to house some of the strangest and most wonderful creatures of planet Earth. The octopus has recently been given a name, Microeledone galapagensis.
The species was discovered by a group of scientists conducting some research near the Galápagos Islands on a submarine called Nautilus. After diving roughly 6,000 feet under the ocean, which is twice the height of the the Burj Kalifa, tallest building in the world, they found the tiny octopus species that was since then unknown to the outside world. At 6,000 feet deep, no sunlight reaches the floor. One scientist even yelled, “It’s tiny! It’s blue!” The team quickly scooped it up to study it. They say the discovery was incredibly surprising because similar blue species have been much larger and have only been found near the cold waters of Antarctica.
The octopus was measured to be about 6 centimeters tall and 3.5 centimeters wide. The researchers at the Charles Darwin Institute immediately contacted Janet Voight, who works at the field museum in Chicago. She noted that the octopus was very unique and even said, “I went through the photos and saw this one and it was like, wow, that is totally special,” as she told Time Magazine. She used special scanners with her team at the museum and took thousands of pictures of the octopus to figure out what lies in its inside body parts. This way, they can figure out which family of octopuses this new tiny species belongs to.
The octopus was discovered to be part of the Mollusca family of octopuses. It lives in seamounts, which are underwater mountains. It was collected by scientist C. Fisher, who was part of the original research team. It was found roughly in the coordinates, 1° 51’ 32.2” N, 92° 6’ 39.7” W.