The octopus is an amazing inhabitant of the sea

The octopus is a representative of the family of cephalopods. In the people, he is better known as an octopus, since he has eight huge tentacles. Since ancient times, many legends and myths go about this inhabitant of the seas . For example, the sailors believed that in the ocean lives a giant octopus-kraken, capable of dragging under the water a whole ship.

Given this, it is not surprising that today many are interested in the truthfulness of these stories. Is the octopus an animal killer? Or is it just fictions of seasoned sailors? And if so, how big can the octopus be?

Octopus: a brief description

The octopus is a marine animal. It is able to live only in salt water, far from noisy beaches and densely populated ports. You can meet an octopus in almost all the seas and oceans that are in the tropical and subtropical zones.

This creature leads a benthonic life, hiding among rocks and algae. As a refuge, the octopus often chooses bottles thrown in water, vases, boxes and other garbage. If the bottom is clean, then the animal looks for empty clefts or simply burrows into the sand.

The octopus is a sea predator. His diet includes crabs, crayfish, fish and even other cephalopod mollusks. Curious is the fact that the octopus is able to change the color of its skin, like a chameleon. Due to this, he can remain invisible, being a few centimeters from his goal.

What an octopus looks like

The octopus is an invertebrate animal, and to be more precise, there are no bones at all. Therefore, its shape can vary depending on the circumstances, which allows it to slip even into the narrowest cracks.

The main feature of the octopus is its tentacles. They are always eight, if only for some reason the animal has not lost one of them. Each "hand" has a series of suction cups, thanks to which the octopus catches its prey.

The octopus's head is ovoid. On it are placed two large eyes, well adapted to hunting in the aquatic environment.

Myths about giant ogres

Most legends about the gigantic sizes of octopuses are fiction. Yes, once upon a time these creatures really were huge. However, at that time people were not yet, which means that they could not tell about these monsters.

As for real facts, for a long time the record holder was the octopus caught in the Pacific Ocean. The length of its tentacles was 3.5 m, and the weight reached 60 kg. But soon a new, larger animal was caught off the coast of New Zealand. So, the weight of the new champion is 75 kg, and the length of each of his eight "hands" reaches 4 meters.