FAQ
A contribution of The Cephalopod Page
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Hey James, Here's a pretty wiggy question for ya'. This friend of mine has this crazy notion that an entire octopus can grow out of a severed arm (an octopus arm, of course - but I guess it wouldn't be much sillier to imagine a severed human arm ... well, anyway) and, while all present assured him that he had been had while still somewhere in his formative years we did get to wondering about the regeneration of an arm. So, my question is: if an octopus has an arm severed (maybe in a horrible accident down at the factory) can he regenerate a replacement or are we confusing our colorful underwater pal with the starfish? Where did our educational system fail us? Marine biologically Ignorant and Landlocked PS: We happen to be from Halifax originally so were happy to find ourselves back home for the answers to our questions. |
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| Hey from Halifax!
A starfish can regenerate a clone from the arm that got caught up in the machinery but an octopus can not. An octopus can regenerate a lost arm though, and octopuses missing arms are fairly common in nature. You probably know that octopuses have very advanced brains for invertebrates - but did you know that 2/3 of the nerves of an octopus are in their body and arms, not the brain! This gives the arms a lot of local control. It also the allows the detached arm to continue to crawl, suckers to suck, and chromatophores to change color all of which can cause quite a seen at the office but makes an effective decoy in nature. James PS I'll swig one down at the Lower Deck for you. |