What do you call a six legged octopus? - March 04, 2008
This headline isn’t the start of a joke. Meet the first known six legged octopus.
Obviously it can’t be called an octopus, even though that is its species (actually a lesser octopus, Eledone cirrhosa). As the Daily Telegraph points out: “‘Octopus’ meaning ‘eight-legged’, it would be similar to talking about a ‘three-wheeled bicycle’.”
So staff at Blackpool Sea Life Centre have named it Henry the Hexapus. He ended up in their aquarium after being found in a lobster pot off the north coast of Wales, although they didn’t notice the missing legs until later.
Henry is thought to result from a genetic defect rather than an unfortunate encounter with something sharp.
“We’ve scoured the internet and talked to lots of other aquariums and no-one has ever heard of another case of a six-legged octopus,” says displays supervisor Carey Duckhouse (various, including Blackpool Gazette, AFP).
Image: courtesy of Blackpool Sea Life Centre
Comments
Well, snakes and manatees are still tetrapods, so why not a six-legged octopus?
Posted by: T. Michael Keesey | March 4, 2008 05:54 PM