Look Over Here, It's An Octopus So Adorable We Can't Even!

Yesterday we brought you the important news that watching kitten videos is good for your brain and your overall outlook, and that is Science. So it only stands to reason that a cute science video is even better for you! (That may need empirical evidence, to be collected in the Tiny Cute Squee Labs of the National Institute for The Study Of Wee Itsy Things. Grant approval pending.)

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What we are saying is, look at this little pink octopus. Just look at her! She's about the size of a fist, has big ol' eyes, and big webby things between her tentacles that allow her to drift around in the deep Pacific like an underwater hang glider. She steers with those ear-like fins that make her look like a puppy. They are not ears, and she is not a puppy. Be glad your puppy does not have eight legs, also.

She also doesn't have a name yet; she's in the genus "Opisthoteuthis," but researcher Stephanie Bush at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, who has been working on describing the recently-discovered species, is leaning toward Opisthoteuthis Adorabilis, because didn't we just tell you to look at the little thing? So far, all 12 examples of the new species have been female, which suggests that the males are just jealous because they are ugly.

Here is a video from WAMU's Science Friday, which you should watch because science, and because it has been a terrible news week, and because there are some very cool little cephalopods in it, as well as some pretty cool science people who have figured out how to keep deep-sea octopi alive in an aquarium up on the land where these little pink things do not belong.

RawStory notes that other species have also been deemed squee-worthy enough to be called adorable, like the White-crested Coquette hummingbird, Lophornis adorabilis. Do they provide a picture? They are not as servicey as your Wonkette, so they do not, but we do!

OK, sure, cute, but it's no wee pink octopus. Also, too, Bush has collected some eggs from the Monterey Bay Aqurarium's Opisthoteuthis tank, and is trying to hatch them. They may take as long as two or three years to hatch because that's just the way eggs are in the cold cold Deep. Disclaimer Note from Science Friday:  "The Opisthoteuthis eggs depicted in this video are preserved specimens, not the eggs laid at the Monterey Bay Aquarium (which are still being lovingly incubated at MBARI's Cold Storage Facility!)" And no, you cannot adopt one when they do hatch, but let's hope that in addition to coming up with a name for the itty-bitty cephalopods, Monterey Bay Aquarium is also working on licensing for plushies, because who wouldn't want an adorable plushadoribilis? 

[ RawStory / SciFri ]