A rare nine-legged octopus was discovered off the coast of Japan by a fisherman on Tuesday. This hardly-found species with an extra tentacle had been caught by a fisherman in the Shizugawa Bay of Minamisanriku in Japan. He had taken it for boiling to prepare dinner when he had noticed this unusual protrusion.
This was one of the four octopi that the fisherman caught. Although the octopus did not survive the boiling water, it is now being showcased after being preserved in alcohol at the Shizugawa Nature Center in Japan.
Biologists are hypothesizing that since octopuses have the ability to regrow severed limbs, this could have been a result of one such incident and the appendage could have been an extra. “(This octopus) is a phenomenon demonstrating the diversity of nature. I want to leave this for posterity and use it to get more people to know about the abundant nature of Shizugawa Bay. I hope it becomes an opportunity for people to learn about the abundant mysteries of the ocean,” Abe, a biologist at the Shizugawa Nature Center was quoted by The Mainichi.
Another rare octopus was discovered in September on an island in Washington State’s Puget Sound – but this one had seven legs. An outdoorsman said he came across the unusual sea creature on Whidbey Beach early on the morning of August 29, when the tide was still out.