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Headline: Tiny blue octopus discovered in the Galapagos Islands
Caption: BY MARK WORGAN Scientists working in the Galápagos Islands have discovered a tiny blue octopus that’s so cute it has been compared to a ‘plushie’. The Galápagos, off the coast of Ecuador, are home to more than a thousand plant and animal species found nowhere else on Earth, including marine iguanas and giant tortoises. Now, the researchers have announced the discovery of another unique resident of the archipelago - the tiny blue octopus, Microeledone galapagensis. The octopus was first spotted during a 2015 deep-sea expedition aboard the E/V Nautilus, carried out in collaboration with the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Galápagos National Park Directorate. Researchers used a remotely operated underwater vehicle to explore the ocean floor near Darwin Island, named after the naturalist Charles Darwin, whose work in the islands contributed to the development of the theory of evolution. As the remotely operated vehicle,surveyed the seabed near an underwater mountain around 5,800ft (1,773m) below the surface, scientists noticed a small octopus. Audio recorded during the dive captured the researchers’ reactions. “He’s tiny,” one said, another added: “It’s blue!” Using the sub’s remotely operated vehicle, the team collected the octopus and later recorded footage of two more that appeared similar. Back at the Charles Darwin Research Station, researchers sorted through dozens of specimens gathered during the expedition. The tiny blue octopus, about the size of a golf ball, immediately drew attention. Uncertain which species it belonged to, the team contacted octopus expert Janet Voight and sent her a photograph. “Right away, I knew it was something really special,” says Voight, curator emerita of invertebrates at the Field Museum in Chicago and lead author of the study. “I’d never seen anything like it.” The specimen was preserved in alcohol and formalin before being sent from the Galápagos to Chicago for examination. However, the fact that it was the only known specimen posed a challenge. “When you describe a new species of octopus, you have to look at all the parts, including the mouth, the beak, and the teeth. And to see those things, you have to cut the specimen open. We only had the one specimen, so I didn’t want to take it apart,” says Voight. Instead, researchers turned to micro CT scanning technology. Stephanie Smith, manager of the Field Museum’s X-ray computed tomography laboratory and co-author of the study, helped create detailed scans of the animal. “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,” says Smith. “There’s nothing like spending the day looking at something no other human has ever seen.” The scans allowed scientists to build a three-dimensional model of the octopus, revealing details of its internal organs without damaging the specimen. “What really struck me was that the scan of the little octopus revealed so much information on its internal organ systems— usually, soft-part imaging using micro CT requires the use of heavy-metal-based contrast agents whose use would not be desirable with such a rare specimen. This made the 3D modeling of relevant organs really an easy task,” says Alexander Ziegler, a researcher at the University of Bonn and senior author of the paper. The discovery marks a new milestone for Voight, who says it is the first new octopus species she has officially led a scientific team in describing during her four-decade career studying octopus evolution. “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,” says 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.” Researchers say discoveries such as this also underline the importance of ocean conservation. “When we were sorting through dozens of specimens collected during the expedition, this tiny blue octopus fascinated us,” said Salome Buglass, marine scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, former researcher at the Charles Darwin Foundation and co-author of the study. “There was something unusual about it, so we went out of our way to find the right person to help us identify what it was. Getting the specimen to Janet was a long process, but one I would gladly repeat if it means getting to know the most precious parts of our ocean just a little bit better. Discoveries like these remind us how much of the deep ocean in Galápagos remains unexplored. Every new species helps us better understand these hidden ecosystems and why protecting them matters.”
Keywords: feature,photo,video,nature,octopus,natural world,science
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