Scientists have identified a tiny blue octopus from the deep waters near Darwin Island as a species new to science, after a 2015 expedition aboard the E/V Nautilus brought up the golf-ball-sized animal from 5,800 feet below the surface.
The find was announced in a paper in Zootaxa, giving formal recognition to a creature first spotted on a remotely operated underwater robot near an underwater mountain off the Galápagos Islands. The crew collected the octopus with the remotely operated vehicle, and the mission also produced video of two other octopuses that looked like it.
Janet Voight, a researcher who helped identify the animal, said, “Right away, I knew it was something really special” and added, “I’d never seen anything like it.” The specimen was one of dozens of deep-sea samples brought back from the expedition, but this one stood out quickly once researchers at the Charles Darwin Research Station sorted through the material.
The Galápagos expedition was carried out with the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Galápagos National Park Directorate, part of a broader effort to study a region off Ecuador known for its extraordinary wildlife. The islands are home to more than a thousand plant and animal species found nowhere else on Earth, including marine iguanas and giant tortoises, but the deep seafloor around them still holds surprises.
Because the octopus was known from a single specimen, traditional dissection was not a good option. Voight said that describing a new species requires examining “all the parts, including the mouth, the beak, and the teeth,” but that she did not want to cut apart the only available example. Instead, the specimen was preserved in alcohol and formalin and sent from the Galápagos Islands to Chicago for examination at the Field Museum.
There, Stephanie Smith created micro CT scans that allowed researchers to see fine details of the octopus’s internal organs, including its mouth, without damaging the animal. Smith said, “Because CT imaging is non-destructive, it's especially important for type specimens like this one. And that's great for me because people are often bringing me these incredibly rare and stunningly beautiful specimens that I get the privilege of virtually opening up,” and added, “There’s nothing like spending the day looking at something no other human has ever seen.”
The scans helped scientists determine where the octopus fits among other octopods and provide the evidence needed to declare it a new species. The paper adds another entry to the growing catalog of deep-sea life from the Galápagos, where exploration continues to turn up animals that are easy to miss and impossible to ignore once they are finally seen. The odd-looking discovery may also catch the eye of readers who know octopuses from the screen, from films and series such as Remarkably Bright Creatures lands on Netflix with Sally Field and an octopus, while the real animal here is very much science, not fiction.
