Bipedal locomotion by Octopus vulgaris
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OCEANARIUM
Bipedal locomotion by Octopus vulgaris Jorge Hernández-Urcera 1
&
Manuel Enrique Garci 1 & Miguel Cabanellas-Reboredo 2
Received: 23 June 2020 / Revised: 25 August 2020 / Accepted: 1 September 2020 # Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung 2020
Fig. 1 Bipedal locomotion by Octopus vulgaris (scale bar 5 cm): a camouflaged octopus after leaving its den; b start of bipedal locomotion with both dorsal arms raised and coiled (left arrow) and the papillae of the head and mantle erected (right arrow); c dorsal arms fully raised;
d octopus head erected and first left ventral arm (arrow) driving locomotion; e first right ventral arm (arrow) driving locomotion; f end of bipedal locomotion and onset of jet propulsion
Communicated by L. Menzel Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-020-01112-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Jorge Hernández-Urcera [email protected]
1
Department of Ecology and Marine Resources, Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas (CSIC), Eduardo Cabello 6, 36208 Vigo, Spain
2
Centro Oceanográfico de BalearesInstituto, Español de Oceanografía (IEO), Muelle de Poniente s/n, 07015 Palma de Mallorca, Spain
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The coastal waters of the Atlantic Islands of Galicia National Park encompass one of the most important recruitment areas for the species Octopus vulgaris in Galician waters (Guerra et al. 2014). On 1 June 2019, at the Cíes Islands (42° 13′ 23.52” N, 8° 53’ 56.61” W), located within the park, the bipedal locomotion of a juvenile specimen of Octopus vulgaris was documented (Fig. 1; Video S1). Despite being one of the most studied cephalopod species, bipedal locomotion (using a hydrostatic skeleton rather than rigid support) has previously never been documented for O. vulgaris. The locomotion of O. vulgaris observed was similar to that of Abdopus aculeatus documented by Huffard et al. (2005). The behaviour lasted for approximately 20 s (Video S1), with the octopus initiating it upon departure from the den (Fig. 1a) and concluding it with the onset of jetting (Fig. 1f). Walking was preceded by a cryptic display in which the octopus coiled and raised the two front arms above its head (Fig. 1b and c) while sitting on the remaining six. Throughout the bipedal locomotion (Fig. 1d and e), O. vulgaris remained camouflaged (crypsis) with both dorsal arms raised while using the left and right ventral arms (pair IV) as legs. Bipedal locomotion is likely restricted to juvenile stages of O. vulgaris because the small body mass maintains higher dynamic stability during the movement (Jindrich and Full 2002). In Cíes Islands, juveniles of O. vulgaris experience high predation pressure, including cannibalism (Hernández-Urcera et al. 2014). With few places to hide on the sandy bottoms, camouflage is used as a primary defence mechanism during foraging by O. vulgaris juveniles. However, camouflage impedes the octopuses from moving (Hanlon et al. 1999). When an octopus moves quickly,
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