Rare Blue Octopus Species Found in Galápagos Deep Waters

(SeaPRwire) –   Nature is often described as beautiful, brutal, gentle, or fierce. Sometimes, however, it is simply adorable. For a recent example of nature at its cutest, consider the tiny blue octopus—small enough to sit in your hand—recently detailed in the journal Zootaxa, complete with photos and videos of its discovery near Darwin Island in the Galápagos.

Researchers aboard the submersible Nautilus first spotted the little blue octopus in 2015, 5,800 feet underwater. The sub’s remote camera was scanning the ocean floor when it caught a blue glimmer and zoomed in to reveal a solitary, eight-armed creature.

“He’s tiny!” exclaimed one researcher.

“It’s blue!” said another.

“Like one of those plushies.”

“Is that a cute little guy or what?”

Unfortunately, the cute creature did not last long in its marine environment. The researchers collected it and brought it onto the sub. It was placed in a bucket of cold seawater and, following standard collection procedures, was soon submerged in 4% formalin, a toxic preservative, for 24 hours. Afterwards, it was transferred to a 95% ethanol solution for storage, to be cataloged and preserved at the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz Island in the Galápagos. 

It remained there, unexamined, until 2017. That year, lab researchers reviewing photos of the station’s specimens identified the octopus as unique and contacted octopus specialist Janet Voight, curator emerita of invertebrates at the Field Museum in Chicago and the lead author of the Zootaxa paper.

“They were trying to determine the species list it belonged to and contacted me,” Voight says. “I went through the photos and saw this one and thought, ‘Wow, that is completely special.’”

It was special enough for Voight to request the research station send her the specimen so she could examine its internal anatomy—not with a scalpel and microscope, but with a CT scanner, a system the Field Museum had recently acquired. From the photo alone, the octopus seemed to belong to the genus Thaumelodone, a type of small, squat octopus found in the deep southern hemisphere. That was merely a hypothesis, however, and Voight was eager to inspect the specimen closely to confirm.

“It came down to really examining the internal organs fully,” says Voight.

It took five years for the research station to agree to ship the sample to Chicago, and it wasn’t until 2022 that Voight finally got it onto the CT scanner. Initially, evidence suggested the animal was indeed part of the Thaumelodone genus. It had a zigzag pattern of suckers on its arms, a distinct Thaumelodone feature. It also lacked an ink sac—consistent with Thaumelodone, since in the deep ocean’s darkness, predators cannot see prey, rendering a defensive ink cloud useless.

However, there were several differences. First was the funnel organ. Octopuses move quickly by drawing water into an internal funnel and expelling it like air from a balloon. Inside the funnel of a Thaumelodone octopus is a small salivary gland, but in this specimen, the gland was comparatively massive, wrapping around the entire interior of the funnel.

Then there was the texture. Thaumelodone octopuses are covered in small bumps, or papillae, but the little blue octopus was smooth. There was also the matter of the animal’s teeth—or tooth. Thaumelodone typically have seven teeth, but this specimen had only one large one. Finally, the color differed. The typical Thaumelodone is maroon. This one—while appearing blue under underwater camera lights—was actually white or clear on top and purple on the bottom.

The conclusion: the “blue” octopus did not fit within the Thaumelodone group at all, but rather within Microeledone, a related deep-water genus—and it was reclassified accordingly.

So: does this classification matter—determining the genus of a dead, preserved creature? Perhaps not. 

“It’s not going to cure cancer or anything,” Voight admits.

But it is a window—a glimpse into dark ocean depths that usually go unseen; a look at a seemingly solitary animal that somehow manages to survive there; a glimpse—and a reminder, Voight says, that biodiversity exists everywhere and must be protected. 

According to a 2011 study in PLoS Biology, an estimated 91% of all potential marine species have never been discovered. Meanwhile, climate change is endangering aquatic life, with oceans absorbing over 90% of the heat from greenhouse gases and about 30% of carbon dioxide emissions. This is occurring as disruptive offshore drilling increases at an annual rate of 6.2% and a burgeoning deep-sea mining industry for critical minerals gains momentum. In this context, many undiscovered animals like the little blue octopus would not stand a chance. 

“It’s the first deep-sea octopus from the eastern Equatorial Pacific,” Voight  says. “It represents everything in the deep sea that we don’t even know exists. We talk about deep-sea mining but we don’t know what is there and we’re putting it all at risk. There are,” she adds, “extraordinary things” there.