As kids , we were taught that it ’s impolite to stare . It ’s a respectable thing not everybody listen . research worker peering at adorable , pudgy deep - seaoctopusessay the placement and number of their warts could be a direction of differentiating two very standardised - looking specie . They published their finding in the journalMarine Biology Research .
Graneledone verrucosa , pictured above , andGraneledone pacifica , pictured below , have an terrible mass in common .
They experience deep in the sea , sometimes chilling as far down as 9500 feet into the blackness . They’reMy Little Pony – coloured , big - eyed , and precious as dumplings . And they ’re warty as heck .
former studies have suggested that these lump could aid distinguish oneGraneledonespecies from another , but deep - sea critter are wily and expensive to find and collect . The scarcity of specimens has made the wart hypothesis difficult to confirm .
And that ’s where museum collections hail in . Lead author Janet Voight is associate conservator of invertebrates at The Field Museum in Chicago . She and her cobalt - source , Jessica Kurth of Pennsylvania State University , test 72 unlike squishy specimens , carefully noting the placement , size , and quantity of each animal ’s wart .
“ Nobody has sat down with dozens of these octopuses and liken them , ” Voight said in a statement . “ There are so many thing like that in museum collections , just wait for the right scientist to come in along and utilise the information they offer . "
The researchers’octopusogling pay off : They found clear , if subtle , dispute in the two species ’ lump - scapes . G. pacificawas wartier , with more bumps running down its arms and mantle than its cousin has .
The study shows the grandness of consume multiple specimens to compare , Voight say . " If you only have two person , you do n’t acknowledge what ’s of import and what ’s not — it’d be like meeting a person with blond hair and a person with brown hairsbreadth and concluding that they must be different species . "
It also illustrates how little we know about animal in the thick ocean . " This study should make future octopus depth psychology leisurely and more strict , " Voight says . " I ’d be happy if that happened . ”
