Costello the octopus had been snoozing peacefully on the side of his tank, like always. No one knew what could happen next.
Costello had had a rough life. While living off the coast of Florida, he got into a fight with another marine creature, losing two arms and damaging a third. After his injuries, Costello was picked up by a vendor who sold him to researchers in New York.
His traumatic run-in could have followed Costello, although no one knows the reason for his violent seizure.
Costello was napping on the side of his tank, at the Rockefeller University of New York. After half an hour of unresponsive sleeping, Costello then entered a more vivid sleep stage.
Soon, his skin started to shift between colors and textures. This was normal, at least, for an octopus.
Then…
It was like he had been struck by a bolt of lightning. Costello shuffled along the wall of his enclosure and started flailing around, his arms curling over his body. Then he writhed and spun like a tornado. Lastly, he shot around, shooting ink all over the tank. The ink eventually cleared to reveal him gripping a tube as if trying to kill it.
These actions all pointed to the idea that he was trying to defend himself. But there was no other predator in his tank, just non-threatening and defenseless fish. This led the scientists to think that he was reliving his past tragedies in the form of a nightmare.
“It was really bizarre, because it looked like he was in pain; it looked like he might have been suffering, for a moment,” Eric Ramos tells Live Science’s Ethan Freedman. “And then he just got up like nothing happened, and he resumed his day as normal.”
Many scientists do not really know what to make of Costello’s active behavior, but one explanation might be that he has been having bad dreams.
Researchers may never be able to find out whether octopus dreams are like our own. Do they also have nightmares? Whether octopuses’ dreams have a narrative structure, or if their nighttime wanderings are different from ours, is still an unsolvable mystery today.
Costello had had a rough life. While living off the coast of Florida, he got into a fight with another marine creature, losing two arms and damaging a third. After his injuries, Costello was picked up by a vendor who sold him to researchers in New York.
His traumatic run-in could have followed Costello, although no one knows the reason for his violent seizure.
Costello was napping on the side of his tank, at the Rockefeller University of New York. After half an hour of unresponsive sleeping, Costello then entered a more vivid sleep stage.
Soon, his skin started to shift between colors and textures. This was normal, at least, for an octopus.
Then…
It was like he had been struck by a bolt of lightning. Costello shuffled along the wall of his enclosure and started flailing around, his arms curling over his body. Then he writhed and spun like a tornado. Lastly, he shot around, shooting ink all over the tank. The ink eventually cleared to reveal him gripping a tube as if trying to kill it.
These actions all pointed to the idea that he was trying to defend himself. But there was no other predator in his tank, just non-threatening and defenseless fish. This led the scientists to think that he was reliving his past tragedies in the form of a nightmare.
“It was really bizarre, because it looked like he was in pain; it looked like he might have been suffering, for a moment,” Eric Ramos tells Live Science’s Ethan Freedman. “And then he just got up like nothing happened, and he resumed his day as normal.”
Many scientists do not really know what to make of Costello’s active behavior, but one explanation might be that he has been having bad dreams.
Researchers may never be able to find out whether octopus dreams are like our own. Do they also have nightmares? Whether octopuses’ dreams have a narrative structure, or if their nighttime wanderings are different from ours, is still an unsolvable mystery today.
