WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For the roughly 300 known octopus species dwelling in the world's oceans, having eight arms is a defining characteristic. But that is not the way it started. Scientists said on ...

Octopuses and their arms are still a bit of a mystery. Not because scientists don't know how they work; their arms are boneless hydrostats, made up of groups of muscles working together, and capable ...

The octopus is one of the coolest animals in the sea. For starters, they are invertebrates. That means they don’t have backbones like humans, lions, turtles and birds. That may sound unusual, but ...

The octopus is a striking creature. Their most defining feature, of course, is their eight arms. A new study of octopuses has now documented exactly how those eight arms are used in the wild.

Octopuses aren’t just flexible—they’re astonishingly strategic. A new study reveals how their eight arms coordinate with surprising precision: front arms for exploring, back arms for locomotion, and ...

Octopuses can "see" light with their arms, even when their eyes are in the dark, researchers have found. When the arms of the octopus detect light, the eight-armed creature pulls them close to their ...

Researchers studied octopuses in the wild to learn whether they favor one of their eight arms over the others for certain jobs, but found the creatures give new meaning to ambidextrous. The octopus is ...