#Blanket octopus predators skin#

They carry the eggs until they hatch.ĭid you know that mating happens at an arm’s length in blanket octopuses?

The female blanket octopuses can carry more than 100,000 eggs in a sausage-shaped calcareous secretion at the base of the dorsal arms. Soon after a successful mate, the males are found to die as if their sole purpose of survival was to have a successful mate. When they mate, the hectocotylus detaches from the male’s body and the female keeps it in their mantle cavity until her eggs are all fertilized. These large arms are, in fact, the modified reproductive organs of the male. The males have a large arm known as hectocotylus in a spherical pouch on their body. How do they mate with such a difference in size? This question has intrigued biologist for years. Though there are other species in the animal kingdom showing sexual-dimorphism none of them have such a startling difference as these blanket octopuses. How do Blanket Octopuses mate? ( Reproduction Behavior) The reason for this difference, as stated by some biologists points to the evolution of these species. Yeah, not all blanket octopuses have this sheets of flesh between their tentacles. Only females Blanket Octopuses have the blanket like sheets of flesh This drastic difference in size & weight is called sexual-size dimorphism.īlanket octopuses are not the only species to show sexual-size dimorphism, but theirs is the most substantial difference found in the animal kingdom! It appears to the marine scientists and biologists that the male blanket octopuses spend the majority of their energy on finding a potential female to mate and not on growing.ĭid you know that the presence of male blanket octopuses was a myth until they were seen in fishermen’s net? While a male blanket octopus weighs little over than what a walnut would, the female blanket octopuses can weigh almost 40,000 times more than the males. The males are so small that they could easily fit inside the ladies’ pupils. Male blanket octopuses grow barely up to an inch while some females are found to grow to a whopping 6ft in length. The startling difference in size between a male and a female Blanket OctopusĪmong the many factors that make the blanket octopuses one of the weirdest in the marine world is the startling difference in size between a male and female. These blankets are occasionally spotted by deep see divers diving in the Australian waters.Ĭan you imagine how a blanket of these octopuses would look floating in the water? A beautiful scarf made of living flesh, quite a fantastic sight to behold, huh? Detaching these blankets may also happen accidentally. When this deceptive trick does not work out, they are capable of detaching these blankets, causing the predator to be entangled in the web giving them enough time to escape. When threatened, blanket octopuses are found to stretch their arms out, creating a silhouette that is capable of scaring away the predators. These blanket like structure is obviously not for warmth! Instead, they use this web as their first line of defense against predators. The only morphological similarity between them is the silvery tone on their sides, and the very dark purple or blue dorsal surface. The morphological features of blanket octopuses are very different from a typical octopus. These sheets of meat when they spread their arms look like a blanket and thus the name, blanket octopuses Unlike other members of the octopus’s family, the blanket octopuses have sheets of flesh stretched between their arms.

#Blanket octopus predators skin#

They are capable of absorbing oxygen through their skin (How do Blanket Octopus breathe?) The origin of the name Blanket Octopus