AP News
HONOLULU (AP) --
Scientists say they have discovered what might be a new species of octopus
while searching the Pacific Ocean floor near the Hawaiian Islands.
On Feb. 27, a team
found a small light-colored octopus at a depth of about 2.5 miles in the ocean
near Necker Island, said Michael Vecchione of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration. The octopus did not have fins and all of its
suckers were in one row on each arm, Vecchione said.
The octopus
"did not seem very muscular" and was light colored, he said.
"This
resulted in a ghostlike appearance, leading to a comment on social media that
it should be called Casper, like the friendly cartoon ghost. It is almost
certainly an undescribed species ..., " he said in the statement posted on
Wednesday on the NOAA website (http://1.usa.gov/1oXarVu.)
It's unusual to
find an octopus without fins so deep in the ocean, said Vecchione, who noted
that the previous depths at which an octopus without fins was found were all
less than 4,000 meters, or 2.5 miles.
Two scientists he
has consulted "agreed that this is something unusual and is a depth record
...," said Vecchione, who is with NOAA's National Systematics Laboratory.
The octopus was
discovered during a search of the ocean floor by NOAA's Okeanos Explorer, he
said.
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