The Spectacular Cephalopod, "Blanket", is a creature of the week on TV.
This is the best introduction to the blanket octopuses that there is.The scientific community is still looking to know more about the magnificent creatures that have intrigued them.For most of their life, the blanket octopuses are hidden between the nooks and crannies on the ocean bed.
Many fascinating and jaw-dropping facts about the blanket octopus will be discussed in this article.
Males grow up to 1.5 inches and females to 6 feet.
The blanket octopuses have sheets of flesh stretched between their arms.When they spread their arms, the sheets of meat look like a blanket.
The features of a blanket octopus are very different from a typical one.The silvery tone on their sides is the only similarity between them.
The blanket like structure is not for warmth.They use the web as their first line of defense.A silhouette that is capable of scaring away the predators is created when blanket octopuses stretch out their arms.
If this trick doesn't work out, the predator will be able to detach the blankets and escape.The blankets may be accidentally detached.
Is it possible that a blanket of these octopuses would look floating in the water?A scarf made of living flesh is a wonderful sight to behold.
There are many factors that make the blanket octopuses one of the strangest in the marine world.Some females are found to grow to a whopping 6ft in length, while some males are barely an inch tall.The males are small enough to fit inside the ladies' pupils.
The female blanket octopuses can weigh almost 40,000 times more than the males.Sexual-size dimorphism is a drastic difference in size and weight.
The most significant difference found in the animal kingdom is that of the blanket octopuses.The marine scientists and biologists believe that the males spend most of their time looking for a female to mate with and not growing.
Did you know that there was a myth about the presence of male blanket octopuses?
Some blanket octopuses have sheets of flesh between their legs.The females have them.Some biologists point to the evolution of these species as the reason for the difference.
There are other species in the animal kingdom that show sexual-dimorphism, but not the blanket octopuses.How do they mate with a difference in size?The question has intrigued biologists for a long time.
The males have a spherical pouch on their body with a large arm.The large arms of the male are modified reproductive organs.
The hectocotylus detaches from the male's body and the female keeps it in their mantle cavity until her eggs are all fertilized.The males die as if their sole purpose of survival was to have a successful mate.
The female blanket octopuses can carry more than 100,000 eggs in a sausage-shaped calcareous secretion.The eggs are carried until they hatch.
All the octopuses have the same diet patterns.The blanketopodes feed on prawns, small fishes, and other arthropods.
Large fishes and some types of whales are the main predator of a blanket octopus.The males are more vulnerable to attack from fishes than females.
In the event of a threat from a predator, the female blanket octopuses unfurl their blankets.In the animal kingdom, this behavior is common.The bigger the prey, the more suspicious the predator will be.
They can detach their blankets from their body in the event that this deceptive defense doesn't work.The blanket of these species floating on the ocean waters is a common sight in tropical and subtropical oceans.
These guys have a lot of tricks up their sleeves.They don't freak out in the case of a blanket defense not working.
The sting from the Portuguese man-of-war is very toxic.The venom from the jellyfishes can be broken off by the octopuses, who use them to fight off their prey.
Some divers have reported seeing the tentacles of a jellyfish in the water.
In this planet, they are found in all the tropical and subtropical waters.The waters of New Zealand are home to a number of blanket octopuses.
They live on the coral reefs and ocean floor.The dens where the octopuses live can stay undetected.They like to visit small crevices and rock bottoms.
The blanket octopuses can be found in the deepest depths of the ocean floor.The blanket octopuses are considered different from their cousins because of this.
When it comes to choosing a habitat, the blanket octopuses are the same as the ordinary ones.Every 10 to 14 days, these creatures find a new place to stay.The reasons for this behavior can be attributed to their nature.
It's easier for them to adapt to nomadic life if they survive in different water temperatures.The ability to survive in varying temperature conditions is said to be one of the reasons why this species has been around for millions of years.
In addition to showing sexual-dimorphism, the size of these octopuses also varies with the temperature of the water they live in.The species living in warmer water are smaller than those in the cold water.
Romantic!?You heard me right.The epitome of love is Blanket Octopuses.Let's get to the point.
When a male blanket octopus finds a female, he doesn't try to prove himself or convince her that he is the right guy.He put his sperms in his arm and stuck it to her body.She can use it as she pleases.He wants her to be happy.
The little guys break their arm and swim away.After a successful mate, the male blanket octopuses die.
The blanket octopuses are intelligent.According to biologists, the most intelligent animals are the octopuses.They can use tools, create gardens to camouflage, and mimic other ocean animals.
The Portuguese man-of-war is not harmful to the blanket octopuses.The tentacles of the jellyfish are broken by the octopuses in order to defend themselves.
Biologists who have studied the behavioral patterns of blanket octopuses claim that they have different temperaments towards specific activities and objects.It's possible that they have different preferences towards certain things.
According to some biologists, the lifespan of octopuses would have made them one of the most intelligent and dominant ocean animals.
They have a shorter lifespan of 3 to 5 years.They would have had enough time to develop their intelligence and improve their abilities.
The blanket octopuses are immune to the toxins of the Portuguese man o' war, but only the males use its tentacles to ward off the predators.
The male blanket octopus doesn't have the flashy blanket like structure like the female, so they use the tentacles from the Portuguese man o' war.
As they grow larger, the juvenile females abandon the Portuguese man o' war strategy.Do you think the sharks would be scared of the sting?I don't think so.
The male blanket octopuses have an advantage over the females that allows them to easily spot a female.When compared to their body size, the male blanket octopuses have a large eye.
The hectocotylus within a spherical pouch is the reproductive arm of the male blanket octopus.
The sperms are injected into the modified arm when the male mates the pouch.
The arm containing the sperms is given to the female and she uses it to fertilize her eggs.The males almost certainly die after a successful mate.
The severed hectocotylus can't be regenerated by the male blanket octopuses.A lost limb can be regenerated by other octopuses.
Sexual selection is a mode of natural selection where a species competes with other members of the same sex for mates.
The male blanket octopuses compete with each other to mate with a female.
Multiple male arms have been found in the mantle cavities of the females blanket octopuses.In a situation where the females have more sperm available for use than they have eggs to fertilize, there will be a drastic difference in the reproductive success of males.
Sexual selection among the males means that they have to compete for a mate.
The male octopuses tend to reduce their development time by maturing earlier, but this causes them to be smaller than the average male blanket octopus.
This is called extreme dimorphism.Being small doesn't affect their ability to find females, they have a large eye compared to their body.
Natural selection may have contributed to extreme dimorphism in this species.
Almost all the female species in the animal kingdom are more significant than the males.Males don't have to be larger.There is no use in a large man.Doesn't make sense, huh?
The female gives birth to a child.The larger the female, the more eggs she can carry.
The more chances you have of getting your genes into the next generation, the better.Even a small male can accommodate a large number of tiny male sperms.
These are the animals that are found in the tropical and subtropical seas of the Atlantic Ocean.The females grow around 2 meters while the males only grow about 2.4 cms.
They are found in the tropical and temperate seas.The typical blanket octopus is found to live in greater depths than these species.The family of blanket octopus has a body that is very squishy.You can read a book through their body.
A blanket octopus has three hearts and a huge brain that is located inside their huge head.Each heart of a blanket is used for a different purpose.The two branchial hearts are responsible for pumping the blood through their pair of gills.
When the animal swims, the systemic heart stops functioning, and the amount of oxygenated blood in their body drops down to an alarming rate, which is why they aren't seen gliding rather than swimming.
The presence of a circulatory system consisting of arteries, capillaries, and veins is an exciting factor about them.
This is something that the other animals don't see.After the vena cavae, the blood is pumped through the gills by the auxiliary hearts and back to the central heart.
There are no significant differences between the male and female blanket octopuses and they have the same circulatory system.
The epitome of amazement is the blanket octopus.The hemocyanin in the octopuses' blood is similar to the haemoglobin in our blood that is responsible for carrying oxygen to different parts of our body.
The hemocyanin is rich in copper and mixed with blood plasma instead of being carried by the blood cells, which causes its blood to be blue in color.
The blanket octopuses have high blood pressures.It takes a lot of pressure to circulate the blood in their body because hemocyanin makes it so.
Hemocyanin is an adaptation to living in cold conditions.In their natural habitat, the segulls are found in considerable depths.
Hemocyanin can carry oxygen more efficiently in those depths than it can on the surface.
It doesn't mean that blanket octopuses are being threatened.Most of the octopus species are not in danger.
It's hard to collect data about their numbers as they live in deep water.There is a blue moon in which the blanket octopuses are seen.The intelligence of the octopuses has not been affected by human intervention.
The blanket octopus has the ability to change its color at will.They are capable of excellent camouflage because of their ability to observe their surroundings and change color accordingly.
As soon as the males transfer their arms to the females, they die.The females can lay up to 400,000 eggs after the eggs are fertilized.The female octopuses are seen to take good care of the eggs.
While the female blanket octopuses wait for the eggs to hatch, they stop consuming food.The female's body shuts down after the eggs hatch.
Her tissues and organs are ripped apart by cellular suicide.The adult blanket octopus dies.
The hatched eggs are found to drift in the plankton clouds.These animals are eaten until they mature.
They are prone to be eaten by other species when living in the plankton clouds.The adult's structure for defense is similar to that of the larvae, but they don't have a blanket like structure.
The blanket octopuses can absorb additional oxygen through their skin, even though they have a fully developed respiratory system.When a blanket octopus is at rest, it absorbs more oxygen from their skin than it does from the water.
The normal respiration process involves expelling water through the gills and drawing it into the mantle cavity.
The passage of water is accomplished by contraction of radial muscles in the mantle wall and by shutting the valves when strong circular muscles force the water out.