You'd Never Suspect an Octopus Was Lying on this Seafloor [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

By Tia Ghose, Senior Writer | November 22, 2017 03:03pm ET

- video at link -

A video of an octopus' hiding in plain sight before popping out to spook a diver has gone viral.

The video shows a nearly invisible octopus, seamlessly blending in with the seafloor, before turning white, floating up from its hiding place and transforming into what looks like a terrifying, bug-eyed sea monster.

It turns out that the octopus in the video belongs to a complex of species known as Octopus vulgaris, and is behaving very typically, said Roger Hanlon, a researcher at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, who studies cephalopod camouflage. Octopus vulgaris are found throughout the world's oceans, but are particularly common in the Caribbean, said James Wood, a marine biologist who runs the Cephalopod Page.

The amazing level of camouflage isn't surprising, as that's the main way the soft-bodied cephalopods manage to stay alive, said Mike Vecchione, a research zoologist, at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Marine Fisheries Service National Systematics Laboratory and the Smithsonian institution. [8 Crazy Facts About Octopuses]

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