Octopuses are known to have surprising behaviors and that their incredible intelligence and skill make many even classify them as “supernatural”. But what has been verified now surpasses everything: when they fight they are able to throw things at each other to defend themselves.

A study published in PLOS ONE by Peter Godfrey-Smitha specialist from the University of Sydney has shown that octopuses appear to be able to deliberately throw objects, sometimes at other octopuses.

The research recorded the behavior of the gloomy octopus (Octopus tetricus) in Jervis Bay, Australia between 2015 and 2016 using underwater video cameras.

Godfrey-Smith and his team looked closely 21 hours of filming captured in several days and identified that 10 octopuses performed 102 instances of throwing objects.

Octopuses have collected material such as slime or shells and they released it using a jet of water from their siphon (a tubular structure that can expel water at high speed) to push it into their arms and through the water, often throwing material several times their body length. .

To make the throws, the octopuses had to do it move your siphon in an unusual position, suggesting that the behavior was intentional.

“We couldn’t try to assess what the reasons might be,” he warns. David Scheel, co-author of the work. But the shedding, he says, “could help these animals deal with the fact that there are so many octopuses around.” In other words, the behavior is likely social.

How do octopuses die?

Although they are impressive, they can change color and even return limbs, octopuses die tragically and researchers have finally been able to unravel the reasons.

To the misfortune of octopuses, their strange nature makes them orphans from an early age. In fact, they don’t even see their mother. After an octopus has laid its eggs, it stops eating and is consumed; when the eggs hatch, she is already dead. And if that’s not enough, a few months later his father also died.

Some captive females even appear to intentionally speed up this process, mutilating and twisting his arms in a tangle, explains a press release.

The short life and tragic end of these creatures attracted the attention of researchers. What has now been discovered are several biochemical pathways critical for the synthesis of some sterol hormones after reproduction. The main substance here is cholesterolas the change occurs abruptly, it causes dramatic changes in the steroid hormones produced.

Researchers recently found that mating appears to change several critical cholesterol-based biochemical pathways in various hormones in female octopuses.

The risks of massive alterations in cholesterol metabolism in other animals, including humans, are no mystery. They are known to have serious consequences on longevity and behavior. The team of scientists behind this study believe this reveals important similarities in the functions of these steroids across the animal kingdom, in both soft-bodied cephalopods and vertebrates.

“We know that cholesterol is important from a dietary point of view and also within different signaling systems in the body,” Z. Yan Wang, PhD, assistant professor of psychology and biology at the University of New York, said in a statement. York. Washington and lead author of the study. “It is involved in everything from the flexibility of cell membranes to the production of stress hormones.but it was a great surprise to see that it also plays a role in this life cycle process. “

What prompts the octopus to self-destruct appears to be the optic gland, an organ similar to the pituitary gland in mammals.. In the year 1977 it was suspected that this was somehow related to the strange death of the octopus. By 2018, scientists sequenced the RNA transcriptome of the optic gland of several California colon octopuses (Octopus bimaculoides) at different stages of their maternal decline.

The recent article is a step up from the above studies, in which they looked at chemicals produced by the octopus’ maternal optic gland. The findings suggest that disrupting the cholesterol-making process in octopuses has serious consequences, just like in other animals.

So far, scientists say they have discovered another step in the octopus self-destruct sequence, reporting more changes downstream than in the end. lead to the mother’s strange behavior and her demise.

“The amazing thing is that they go through this progression of changes where they seem to go crazy right before they die,” said Clifton Ragsdale, PhD, professor of neurobiology at the University of Chicago. “It could be two processes, it could be three or four. We now have at least three apparently independent steroid hormone pathways that could explain the multiplicity of effects these animals show,” he says.