Basic Information on the North Pacific Giant Octopus -Enteroctopus dofleini
The North Pacific Giant Octopus grows bigger and lives longer than any other octopus species. The size record is held by a specimen that was 30 feet (9.1 meters) across and weighed more than 600 pounds (272 kilograms). Averages are more like 16 feet (5 meters) and 110 lbs (50 kilograms). They live to be about four years old with females and males dying soon after breeding. The females live long enough to take care of their eggs, however they do not eat during this period and die soon after they hatch. Giant Pacific octopuses have huge, bulbous heads and are generally reddish-brown in color. Like the other members of the octopus family, though, they use special pigment cells in their skin to change colors and textures, and can blend in with even the most intricately patterned corals, plants, and rocks. They hunt at night usually eating fish, lobsters, shrimp and clams, but have been known to attack and eat sharks with their sharp beaklike mouths to tear the flesh.
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The nervous system of the NOrth pacific giant octopus -enteroctopus Dofleini
This octopus has nine brains and blue blood. There is a central brain and a large ganglion at the base of each arm, it controls movement. Their brains are comprised of 64 lobes and are protected by craniums that seem to be made out of cartilage. They have axial nerve cords down each arm sending information to and from the brains. All of these axial nerve cords are connected by a circular nerve cord at the base of the mantle. Their suckers have individual ganglia that connects it to the axial nerve cord.
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