Many people have no opinion or assume octopuses are stupid, spineless creatures.
But their brains are the largest of all the invertebrates. Their neurons are massed into lobes like ours. Their brains runs on a a decentralized nervous system, two-thirds of which is distributed in the eight arms and legs.
Recent evidence shows that octopuses possess intelligence. For example, they can:
Open jars (video)
Mimic other sea creatures (video)
Did you know that when threatened, an octopus may turn white and puff up to scare the predator. It’ll then shoot ink to distract the predator and zig-zag through water to quickly camouflage itself among the coral. (Video)
In a test done by Oxford biologist N.S. Sutherland, Octopuses were given a treat if they picked one shape over the other. They soon learned that a rectangle was a rectangle no matter how it was oriented.
Octopuses proved to have excellent memory. Scientific journals have publish research papers on octopus learning, octopus personality, octopus memory. Now the octopus has even made it into the pages of the journal Consciousness and Cognition.
It’s important to note that intelligence here, is defined in a different way. It’s suited towards their conditions and environment.
