There are around 300 different types of octopus in the wild right now! There are likely more octopuses than you think. Taking several months to develop and hatch, female mothers don’t eat whilst waiting for their eggs – it’s a starvation period! 6. It’s to do with starvation.Įxperiments have established why females die after eggs hatch. Once safely hatched, females usually die quickly too – very sad! 5. Known as ‘kraken’, books and films about exciting seafaring adventures featuring the enormous beasts are rife!įollowing an impassioned courtship, male octopuses die after impregnating females! Female octopuses care for eggs in a den until they hatch. In Greenland and Norway, folklores describe fearsome giant octopuses, often threatening big ships. Some people refer to octopuses as octopi – but it’s actually incorrect! As weird as it sounds, ‘octopuses’ is the correct plural in English. A year later they were given the name we know them by! 2.
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In 1817, the English biologist William Elford classified these creatures as ’octopoda’. We named them all the way back in the 19th century. These many-tentacled critters are certainly odd – so here’s some fun facts about octopuses worth getting a wriggle on for! 1. Octopuses are sea creatures that have fascinated, threatened and fed other species for centuries! Today scientists recognize their value in medical research and pioneering designs for human prosthetics, too.