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. 2021 Mar 5;11(9):3679-3684.
doi: 10.1002/ece3.7328. eCollection 2021 May.

Bipedal locomotion in Octopus vulgaris: A complementary observation and some preliminary considerations

Piero Amodio  1 , Noam Josef  2 , Nadav Shashar  2 , Graziano Fiorito  1
Affiliations

Bipedal locomotion in Octopus vulgaris: A complementary observation and some preliminary considerations

Piero Amodio et al. Ecol Evol. .

Abstract

Lacking an external shell and a rigid endoskeleton, octopuses exhibit a remarkable flexibility in their movements. Bipedal locomotion is perhaps the most iconic example in this regard. Until recently, this peculiar mode of locomotion had been observed only in two species of tropical octopuses: Amphioctopus marginatus and Abdopus aculeatus. Yet, recent evidence indicates that bipedal walking is also part of the behavioral repertoire of the common octopus, Octopus vulgaris. Here we report a further observation of a defense behavior that encompasses both postural and locomotory elements of bipedal locomotion in this cephalopod. By highlighting differences and similarities with the other recently published report, we provide preliminary considerations with regard to bipedal locomotion in the common octopus.

Keywords: Octopus; behavioral flexibility; bipedal; cephalopods; locomotion; walking.

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Conflict of interest statement

Authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Visual description of the patterns exhibited by Octopus vulgaris (Type III) during bipedal and/or multi‐arm walking. The sketches were drawn from still images extracted from the documentary “My octopus teacher” (Ehrlich & Reed, 2020)
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Still images describing the behavioral sequence. See main text and Video S1 for details
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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