Do you find this octopus “Adorabilis”?
Apparently, some scientists find this fist-sized creature so adorable that they are planning to name it Opisthoteuthis adorabilis. Many have compared this cute sea creature to the ghost in the Pacman video game.
Postdoctoral fellow Stephanie Bush of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research (MBAR) was given the opportunity to think of a scientific name for the octopus whose specimens had been collected since 1990.
“As someone that’s describing the species, you get to pick what the specific name is. One of the thoughts I had was making it Opisthoteuthis Adorabilis — because they’re really cute,” Bush told Science.
The cute little fella was discovered living in deep sea, in depths reaching 1,500 feet. Measuring 7 inches in diameter, the little creature has well-developed webs between its 8 tentacles. Because of this, it appears to be parachuting around the ocean floor.
Its other distinct morphological features include having massive eyes in relation to its body and more gelatinous characteristic compared to other octopi.
This type of octopus belongs to the same genus as that of Pearl, the pink flapjack in the Disney Pixar film “Finding Nemo”.
Currently, the researchers at the MBAR are trying to keep the octopus in a big tank and attempting to copy the conditions of its natural environment. Luckily, the creature has laid four eggs inside the tank a year ago.
“It’s been at least a year now that they’ve been developing, and they’re not ready yet. It may take two and a half to three years or something like that to be ready to hatch out of the eggs,” Bush explained in the video.
Aside from this octopus, the White-crested Coquette hummingbird is another species deemed worthy of carrying the name adorable. Scientists have named it Lophornis adorabilis.
