Cephalopods Are ‘So Aliens’ Says Marine Biologist Who Seemingly Communicates With an Octopus in Rare Video

A marine biologist who had a close encounter with an octopus spoke about her "incredible moment" with the sea creature. She also shared why they are bizarre due to their structure, even saying they are "alien."

Octopus and Squid Are 'So Alien'

In the three-part series of National Geographic's "Secret of the Octopus," marine biologist Alex Schnell immersed herself in marine life and closely encountered an Octopus. The team spent two years and nearly 1,500 hours underwater for the docuseries. They filmed the octopuses to learn about their behavior from different locations across five countries -- Canada, Indonesia, Australia, Brazil, and Turks and Caicos.

Schnell has always found octopuses fascinating. She admitted to being surprised by how their bodies were designed.

"Cephalopods [the animal group that contains octopuses, squid and related creatures] were always a point of interest from a very young age," Schnell explained. "They're just so alien-they have three hearts that pump blue blood, no bones, and skin that can change color in an eye-blink. But within this really strange framework, we're seeing glimmers of intelligence that we might normally expect to see in, say, dolphin chimpanzees or elephants."

During the filming, Schnell formed a bond with Scarlet, a day octopus, who gave the team a glimpse into her world. They captured rare footage of Schnell and Scarlet seemingly communicating while hunting.

Schnell claimed to have had a "crazy" idea after seeing the octopus hunt with the fish. One day, the researcher followed Scarlet hunting and wondered if the octopus would react if she pointed to where she thought she saw a particular crab that Scarlet had missed.

Scarlet allowed her to come very near. Schnell didn't expect the coral rubble crabs to swim out of her reach as she put her arms underneath them. The marine biologist helped Scarlet hunt by pointing to where the crab may go, and Scarlet responded.

Schnell said it was an "incredible moment." She admitted that the complexities of this kind of communication were unknown to them. What happened was only the beginning, and it seemed like a pretty intriguing direction.

Rare Mating Between 2 Octopuses

In the same documentary, a male octopus was spotted using a passing cloud display -- a communication when an octopus changes its color to communicate with a potential partner. The female octopus reacted favorably, so he propped up a papilla -- a skin protrusion that the octopus can control to change the shape of its body -- above his eye to mate. However, he had difficulty locating her mantle cavity -- the muscular structure where sperm is deposited during mating.

The female octopus got "impatient and hungry," according to Paul Rudd, the narrator. So, she dragged him as she started to hunt for food while the male octopus clung.

As series producer Adam Geiger put it, the female octopus went about her other business and pulled the male over the reef, hanging on for his dear life. Although they only saw one species in the series mating that way, they were open to the possibility that others would do it too.

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