It’s World Octopus Day! We all know these molluscan geniuses are awesome, right? And if we’ve learned anything this year, it’s that these crazy cephalopods are even more amazing than we thought. From sand-digging superpowers to built-in invisibility cloaks, we’ve rounded up some of the most fascinating octo-discoveries from this year to celebrate World Octopus Day 2015.
And octopuses aren’t the only invertebrates getting some time in the limelight this month. Established in 2007, World Octopus Day marks the start of Cephalopod Awareness Days, a five-day celebration of this distinct group of marine molluscs. Closely related to snails, clams and slugs, cephalopods are characterised by sucker-bearing tentacles and well-developed eyes. There are about 800 recognised species of these uniquely adapted invertebrates, including octopuses, squids, cuttlefish and nautiluses. Yet, despite our fascination with their alien-like intelligence and adaptations, there is still much to learn about these species.
Join the ceph-celebration on Facebook and Twitter using the #CephDays hashtag.
BONUS: Here’s the forum thread on TONMO (an online octopus news magazine) that started it all.