Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Amazing undersea world - Octopus



The octopus is a mollusk and master in disguise. It belongs to the same group as chitons, abalone, snails, limpets, scallops, oysters, clams and mussels. The octopus also belongs to a sub-species of mollusks called the cephalopods. This means head to foot and is used as the name because an octopus’ "feet" are attached to its head.

Octopuses tend to be small in warm tropical waters and larger in colder waters. Octopi live in all the oceans, but are strictly salt water creatures. The Giant Pacific Octopus lives in the coastal waters of British Columbia and is the largest octopus in the world. The largest Giant Pacific Octopus ever caught weighed about 600 pounds, about the same weight as a Brown bear! The tentacles on the beast spanned upwards of 33 feet in length. Obviously, octopi are generally much smaller. For example, females rarely exceed 55 pounds and males average less than 90. The Giant Pacific Octopus is one of the longer lived species whereas most octopi live only one or two years. The male can live to approximately 4 years and the female can live to about 3.5 years.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Monk

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