While exploring a wall along the central part of the West Florida Escarpment in search of deep-sea coral habitats as part of the Exploration of the Gulf of Mexico 2014, we encountered this dumbo octopus displaying a body posture that had not been previously observed in cirrate, or finned, octopods. As you can see in the video, the common name for these octopods comes from the fins on the sides of the body, reminiscent of the large ears on the flying elephant in the Disney cartoon.
This cirrate belongs to the genus Grimpoteuthis but to be certain of the species identity, we would have had to collect it. While we were observing the octopod, it was observed coiling its arms into tight spirals. Our resident cephalopod expert noted that while he has seen many, many photos and videos of cirrate octopods and seen them do a variety of postures with their arms, he had never seen one spiral its arms like this.
This is a good example of the fact that every time we get a chance to explore the deep sea, we find something new and unexpected.
Download SD version (mp4, 9.1 MB).
Video courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration, Exploration of the Gulf of Mexico 2014.