More than 6 years ago, in the dead of night, a octopus named Inky escaped from his tank at the National Aquarium of New Zealand. After going over the top of his tank, Inky slipped across the deserted floor from the aquarium and came to a six-inch drainpipe that, fortunately for him, led directly into the sea.
Inky’s escape did not surprise marine biologists studying these natural escapists. “They are curious and inquisitive animalsRoger Hanlon, senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, told Live Science.
In addition, the scientist added that these cephalopods have the largest and most complex brain of any invertebrate on Earth. The actress Gwyneth Paltrow also said it in her day, who claimed not to eat this cephalopod because of its intelligence, according to the Huffington Post.
But this fact has not been the only one in history. Octopuses have escaped their enclosures before using a variety of methods, from unscrewing tightly capped jars to climbing out of their tanks. Without a doubt, these marine animals have fascinated both scientists and the public with their abilities.
[La “inquietante” inteligencia de una de las especies marinas más consumidas en España]
shared genes
Octopuses can be so frighteningly intelligent because they share the intelligence genes of humans. Its genes are called “jumping genes” or transposons, and they make up 45% of the human genome.
Jumping genes are short DNA sequences with the ability to be copied and pasted or cut and pasted to another location in the genome, and have been linked to the evolution of genomes in multiple species.
Genetic sequencing revealed that two species of octopus, The common octopus y Octopus bimaculoidesalso have genomes full of transposons, according to a study published in the journal BMC Biology.
In both humans and octopuses, most transposons are inactive, either shut down due to mutations or blocked from replicating by cellular defenses, the study authors reported.
Although octopuses are not closely related to animals with backbones, they demonstrate a Neuronal plasticity and behavior similar to that of vertebrates.
Also, these animals, like mammals, have the ability to continually adapt and solve problems. This evidence suggests that the similarity may originate at the genetic level.
Smarter
Unlike humans, restricted by the range of motion of our joints, the octopuses, soft except for their beaks, they have no such limitations. As such, move his body and eight arms requires more neurons than human movement.
Having a large number of neurons by itself is not an indicator of intelligence since three fifths of which are not located in the brain, but rather in the nerves that run through the octopus’ arms that they use for movement and control. the appearance of your skin.
Despite this, the brain of octopuses works surprisingly similar to ours, and their curiosity and desire to explore reminds us of our own thirst for knowledge.
Without a doubt, your nervous system makes them one of the most ‘smart’ and fascinating creatures on the planet. Ángel González, PhD in Biology and scientific researcher at the CSIC, explained to RTVE that “octopuses are animals that learn very quickly, capable of differentiating color patterns in shades of gray and striped structures.”
It is estimated that there are more than 750 different species of cephalopods in the world, of which around 250 species of octopus have been described, which inhabit all ecosystems. Thus, there would be a large number of intelligent cephalopods in the marine world of which we have only investigated a few.
Therefore, it is still a mystery how far his intelligence can go. What we do know is that they are capable, for example, of surviving in extreme habitats, with temperatures ranging from as low as -1.8°C to over 30°C. The reason why they can live in icy waters lies in their blue blood.
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