We begin with a pregnant octopus. She's been that way for four or five months, carrying the eggs inside her body until one day, in mid winter, when the water temperature is right, she starts expelling her eggs, one by one, into the water.
The male passes a spermatophore into the female's mantle during mating. The female has up to 6 months to use it to fertilize her eggs. She then lays 20,000 to 80,000 eggs in long, braided strands that look like white, tear-shaped grape clusters. The process of laying the eggs can take about a month.
In observations from 2007 to 2011, deep-sea diving researchers at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) discovered that the female Graneledone boreopacifica guards her eggs for 53 months — that's almost four and a half years — the longest brooding period ever recorded.
Octopuses are special creatures that reproduce only once during their lifetime (they are semelparous) and then pass away. After laying a clutch of eggs, an octopus mother stops eating and puts all her energy toward protecting her eggs, eventually leading to her death by the time the eggs hatch.
It's like reproduction is the only purpose of their life. The male octopus, as stated earlier, dies usually after a few months of mating, while the female just lives to see the eggs hatching (which usually takes ten months); and after nurturing the eggs, it dies.
Octopuses are semelparous which means that once they have mated, they die. This process is called senescence. Females have the additional step of laying eggs and caring for them, but they eventually meet the same fate as their male companions.
It varies according to species, but octopuses, both wild and captive, live roughly 1 to 5 years. This short lifespan is a consequence of a reproductive strategy known as semelparity, meaning that octopuses breed only once in their lifetime and die shortly thereafter.
Motherhood will be terminal for her. She will no longer eat and will end up dying, consumed, exhausted, approximately five months (between June and October) after having set up her shelter, after all her children have been born.
Lifespan. The giant Pacific octopus has a long lifespan for an octopus — about three to five years. Octopuses in general usually live no more than a year! A giant Pacific octopus will live a solitary life until the very end, at which point it will seek out a mate, reproduce and die shortly thereafter.
She's dead before the eggs can hatch. Scientists have known that the animal's optic glands are responsible for this behavior. When the glands are removed, the octopuses resume eating and live months longer. But just how these glands trigger the animal's gruesome death has been a mystery.
Oldest-known octopus relative lived 328 million years ago and had 10 arms | CNN.
For all their uncanny intelligence and seemingly supernatural abilities to change color and regenerate limbs, octopuses often suffer a tragic death. After a mother octopus lays a clutch of eggs, she quits eating and wastes away; by the time the eggs hatch, she is dead.
Octopuses are semelparous animals, which means they reproduce once and then they die. After a female octopus lays a clutch of eggs, she quits eating and wastes away; by the time the eggs hatch, she dies.
This octopus game of cat-and-mouse actually has a very important goal—mating. Male octopuses have a specially modified "sex arm" that they use to place a pack of sperm into the female's mantle cavity. The female then lays her eggs in a hole or under rocks.
Giant Pacific octopus lay eggs as part of their natural life cycle when they reach maturity. Although these eggs are unfertilized, the popular octopus will now forsake herself to tend to her them until the end of her life.
The rest are in the doughnut-shaped brain, which is wrapped around the oesophagus and located in the octopus's head. Octopuses have demonstrated intelligence in a number of ways, says Jon. 'In experiments they've solved mazes and completed tricky tasks to get food rewards.
There is a consensus in the field of animal sentience that octopuses are conscious beings — that they can feel pain and actively try to avoid it.
During mating, the male approaches the female, who fends him off for a while, but then accepts him. He sits next to her or mounts her, inserting the hectocotylus in her mantle cavity to pass the spermatophores. They may copulate for several hours.
The answer might surprise you Scientists in Montana recently found a fossil of an early ancestor of modern octopuses. It lived about 330 million years ago — before the age of dinosaurs.
Octopuses have three hearts: one pumps blood around the body; the other two pump blood to the gills.
The octopus would not be able to survive because that is the heart that provides the whole body with blood, which also helps deliver important oxygen around the body. If you thought three hearts was a lot, you might be even more surprised to learn about the hagfish, which looks kind of like a slimy, sticky eel.
Cross-Dressing Cephalopods
Cephalopods, specifically octopuses and squids, often employ a variety of gender-bending techniques when mating.
Octopus are semelparous, which means they only reproduce once. This comes at the end of their relatively short lifespan that on average lasts 3-5 years but can be as short as 6 months.
Octopuses have three hearts, which is partly a consequence of having blue blood. Their two peripheral hearts pump blood through the gills, where it picks up oxygen. A central heart then circulates the oxygenated blood to the rest of the body to provide energy for organs and muscles.