A tiny blue octopus that lives in the deep sea off the coast of the Galápagos Islands is so small that it can fit in the palm of a hand. And as a team of researchers coordinated by Chicago’s Field Museum announced in a new study just published in the journal Zootaxa, it now has an official name—Microeledone galapagensis.
The octopus was first spotted in 2015 during a deep-sea expedition aboard the research vessel E/V Nautilus. From there, marine biologists used a remotely operated underwater vehicle (RoV) to explore the ocean floor near Darwin Island, at the northern end of the Galápagos archipelago. As the RoV’s camera moved across the seafloor near an underwater slope at a depth of 1,773 meters (5,817 feet), they noticed the tiny octopus with its vibrant blue coloring.
By performing a close inspection, the researchers were able to recover the blue octopus and film two other specimens, and then, at the end of the mission, conduct a thorough analysis. It left them puzzled, however, as they were not certain which species it belonged to. So they contacted Field Museum expert Janet Voight, sending her a photo of the animal. “Right away, I knew it was something really special,” said Voight, lead author of the new study. “I’d never seen anything like it.” However, to determine whether an animal belongs to a new species requires a complete analysis of all its body parts, and since the blue octopus was the only one of its kind ever collected, the experts did not want to dissect and thus lose such a valuable specimen.
To overcome this problem, the authors used x-ray computed tomography to create and assemble thousands of CT micro-scans, which then allowed them to create a 3D model of the blue octopus, both internally and externally. The researchers were able to observe the most minute details, from the tentacles (squat, with few suckers) to the smooth skin (almost devoid of pigment on the back) to a specific funnel-shaped organ, thus obtaining the information needed to classify it as a new species and place it among other cephalopods. “Because CT imaging is nondestructive, it’s especially important for type specimens like this one,” said coauthor Stephanie Smith. “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.”
In addition to describing the new species, the blue octopus reminds us how much we still don’t know about the ocean depths, how crucial these expeditions and research are to better understand these still unexplored ecosystems, and why protecting them is so important.
“These are little octopuses that live in the deep sea, and hardly anybody on Earth has ever gotten to see them. I just feel lucky that I got to work with them,” said Voight. “If you took all the land on Earth and pieced it together, you would not cover the Pacific Ocean. The oceans are so big, and there’s so much left to explore.”
This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian.
