First video of 'dumbo' octopod hatchling shows that they look like mini-adults

February 19, 2018, Cell Press

Researchers who've gotten the first look at a deep-sea "dumbo" octopod hatchling report in Current Biology on February 19 that the young octopods look and act much like adults from the moment they emerge from an egg capsule. Dumbo octopods are so named because their fins resemble Dumbo the elephant's ears.

"Once the fins were observed while it was still in the bucket, it was clear that it was a 'dumbo' octopod," says Elizabeth Shea at the Delaware Museum of Natural History.

The researchers identified the octopod as a member of the Grimpoteuthis family, although the species identity remains unclear. Shea explained that's because species descriptions are typically based on mature adult specimens, often including features that are likely to change as an individual grows and matures.

Study co-author Tim Shank at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, MA, was the first to see the hatchling in 2005 while serving as co-chief scientist of a Deep Atlantic Stepping Stones cruise, which used remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to explore the New England and Corner Rise Seamount chains in the Northwest Atlantic. In the collected sample, he saw what looked like tan-colored golf balls attached to coral branches and collected several of them.

"With each successive collection, it became apparent that this was some sort of an egg case," Shank says. "The first few were open and empty, the next two contained a white gelatinous mass within, and the final collection yielded the specimen described in the paper."

When Tim first took the coral out of the ROV collection box and placed it in a 5-gallon bucket in the cold room, he noted that the egg case was tan-brown with a stippled texture and that the egg case was not broken. By the time he got the bucket out of the cold room and inspected the egg case, it was open and part of the hatchling was partially exposed.

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