The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness

Octopuses are cephalopods, members of the class Cephalopoda, which belongs to the phylum Mollusca. Its members are invertebrates that live in the ocean, have large heads, and have arms or tentacles.

An octopus’s funnel, which expels water, is at the end of its mantle, near its head, and can be moved 180 degrees to either side. It is used to propel the octopus through the water and to shoot water at something it dislikes. Research has also shown that octopuses use their funnel for play. In one study, octopuses were observed squirting empty pill bottles around in the water, either in a circle or back and forth across the surface.

This is the name for the male octopus’s third right arm. A female’s has suckers all the way to the tip, but a male’s ends in what is called the ligula, which contains the spermatophore. During mating, the male inserts this into an opening in the female’s mantle to transfer the spermatophore to her. The sperm are subsequently released, which fertilize her eggs. 

This is the name for the body of an octopus and is the large round structure at the end opposite its arms. It contains all the octopus’s organs. It is soft and made mostly of muscle. The body of an octopus contains no bones or hard structures.

Squid are often confused with octopuses, but they are part of different orders. Among the main differences are that a squid has two tentacles in addition to its eight arms, a hard structure in its mantle similar to a backbone, and fins on the side of its mantle, which is triangular. Octopuses lack all of these, and its mantle is round. 

This is the term for the round structures, like suction cups, that octopuses use to both taste and grasp things. Each sucker has 10,000 chemoreceptors, and a hole in the center allows it to create its suction force. A giant Pacific octopus, like all of those Montgomery interacts with, has 1,600 suckers. The larger suckers with a diameter of three inches can each lift 30-35 pounds. That means if all its suckers were that large, an octopus could lift over 50,000 pounds.