World Octopus Day: new discoveries about the world’s smartest invertebrates

World Octopus Day arrives with a batch of research roundups from Mongabay, including a fossil jawbone described by Japanese researchers suggesting an extinct species, Nanaimoteuthis haggarti, may have reached up to 61 feet long during the late Cretaceous. Separately, researchers photographed rare Patagonian octopus eggs in Argentina, from a species whose global conservation status remains undetermined despite decades of declining catches.

A 2015 deep-sea expedition find was confirmed as a new species, Microeledone galapagensis, a golf-ball-sized blue octopus with unusually short arms whose feeding strategy still puzzles its discoverers.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.