Chris Cantell Discusses Science: Six-legged Octopus, Glass Sponge and Marine Lice by Milota Sidorova

Classified rather as a joke of nature than a new animal species that' s the finding of British marine experts in a case of six-legged octopus miracle, generally named as Henry.Surprising mollusc has been attached in a lobster pot near the north Wales shore by a staff from local marine zoo just two weeks ago. Octupus, actually 'hexapus' is a cephalod in the order of Octopoda. Till this day we recognize around 300 species of them, that is eqaully more than one-third of all cephalods.Specific with its eight arms, entirely muscular soft body with no internal skeleton, three hearts and the hemocyanin dissolved in its plasma instead of being bound in red blood cells which gives the blood a blue color, octopuses seem to be highly intelligent, probably the most among all others invertebrates. Scientists prooved the existence of long and short term memory. Well, from time to time, you can see a document where a sea-diver plays with his favourite octopus, that evidently recalls its favourite human sea-diver. Despite of scarring look, their ink-sacks and camouflage reflexes are just a part of self-defence.Thesis about new octopus species have been denied with more probable birth defect. For now Henry remains a freak, a joke or for somebody a lovely creature. What' s for sure, is that it will join the public zoo aquarium as a part of permanent marine expositon.Number of new ocean species grows rapidly every year. As a matter of fact, oceans are, besides the rain forests one of the richest sources of unknown animal species. Their dark deepness provide perfect environment for million of creatures, still escaping man' s attention. According the scientists, the species richest ocean is the Southern Ocean, including the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Ocean surrounding Antarctica. In other oceans the number of species drops the deeper you go,said study co-author Katrin Linse, a marine biologist at the British Antarctic Survey. A research motiveted international team boared on the German research vessel Polarstern reached the waters of Southern Ocean. Almost 3 years lasting research brought up plenty of deep-sea fauna species. For instance one can mention special glass sponge, besides one of 76 sponge species found during the period, ghostly white scampi look like Cylindrarcturus or Ceratoserolis a type of marine crustacean related to wood lice.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080303/sc_afp/sciencebritainanimalhexapusoffbeat;_ylt=AsDAzpkHZPYAX3bhrafZFcas0NUE

by Milota Sidorova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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