Octopuses possess a distinctive appearance with a large head and eight tentacles. These strong, winding tentacles, densely packed with terrifying suction cups, easily grip their prey. Dubbed "sea monsters," most other animals dare not approach them.
Octopuses are animals that have many hearts.
How many hearts does an octopus have?
Octopuses are one of the few animals that don't have just one heart like most other animals; they have three. The largest and most powerful heart, called the systemic heart, is located in the center of the octopus's body and is responsible for pumping oxygenated blood throughout the body, but not to the gills.
Another interesting fact is that the large heart stops beating when the octopus swims. The other two hearts are relatively smaller and weaker, and are called branch hearts. Each branch heart is attached to one of the octopus's gills to pump blood through the gills, so they are also called gill hearts.
Why do octopuses need three hearts?
According to biologist Kirt Onthank at Walla Walla University (USA), animals also need sufficient blood pressure to efficiently pump blood throughout their bodies. The octopus's gills draw vital oxygen from the water, and then two branched hearts help pump oxygen-poor blood through the gills.
Unlike other animals, octopuses need three hearts to survive.
However, blood passing through the gills becomes oxygen-rich and under low pressure, which is not ideal for delivering blood to the body's organs. This necessitates the octopus needing another heart behind the gills, also known as a systemic heart, to re-pressurize the blood, thereby efficiently pumping oxygen-rich blood throughout the body.
How many brains does an octopus have?
An octopus has nine brains, including one main brain responsible for analysis and decision-making, and eight secondary brains. These secondary brains are located at the base of each arm (tentacle). When information is received, it is transmitted to the secondary brains, processed, and sent back to the main brain.
The head contains a large brain with a brain-to-body ratio comparable to other intelligent animals. The nervous system is complex, with approximately 500 million neurons, but these neurons are not concentrated in the brain; instead, they are distributed in a network of ganglia linked to three main parts. The central brain contains only about 10% of these neurons. The two large eye lobes contain about 30%. The remaining 60% are located in the tentacles.
Octopuses have one main brain and eight accessory brains.
How many tentacles does an octopus have? How many suction cups?
Octopuses have a total of eight tentacles. Traditionally, people thought that octopuses use four tentacles for locomotion (referred to as legs) and the other four for eating and grasping (referred to as arms).
After collecting data from 2,000 different observations, marine experts from 20 marine life research centers across Europe discovered that octopuses move on only two tentacles and use the remaining six for eating.
Another strange thing is that they only use their two legs to propel themselves when swimming. The other tentacles act like paddles, helping the octopus swim. There are a total of 240 suction cups on the eight tentacles. They use these suction cups to cling to the seabed and move around. Octopus tentacles also have sensory and taste organs, which help them determine whether their prey is edible.
Tuyet Anh (Source: Compilation)
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