Scientists Have Discovered Underwater Cities Built By Octopuses

That Octopuses are intelligent, sentient beings is a fact that stands above debate. They have been known to squirt water up at lightbulbs until they short circuited, identify one human from another despite them being dressed in uniform, exhibit short term and long term memory, and have a sense of humour - this one octopus was given a slightly spoiled shrimp and stuffed it down the drain while maintaining eye contact with its keeper. With all this in mind, it comes as no real shock when scientists discovered that Octopuses have been building underwater ‘cities’ of their own.

The Gloomy Octopus, better known as the common Sydney Octopus or Octopus Tetricus, were named so because of a tendency to be to “anti-social” known to meet once a year to mate. Turns out, this might not be so after all. Off the shore of Eastern Australia, in Jervis Bay, researchers “recently spotted 15 gloomy octopuses at a site the scientists named “Octlantis”” according to this report. The site extends upto 18 m in length and approximately 4 m in width, and consists of three patches of emerging rock, the only formation of its kind in the area. The research was led by Professor David Scheel, who in his new report states “These behaviours are the product of natural selection, and may be remarkably similar to vertebrate complex social behaviour.”

In what way are they similar you ask? The researchers went on to write an article in the Marine and Freshwater Behavior and Physiology Journal, in which they say “O. tetricus are often observed as solitary individuals, with the species known to exist at similar densities and exhibiting complex social behaviors at only one site other than that described here. The present site was occupied by 10–15 octopuses on eight different days. We recorded frequent interactions, signaling, mating, mate defense, eviction of octopuses from dens, and attempts to exclude individuals from the site.”

The “one other site” is in reference to a discovery made in 2009 of what researchers called “Octopolis” - a site was discovered by Matthew Lawrence, comprising of an extended midden forming a bed of shell hash around what is probably a single human artifact, of unknown origin. The artifact is a single flat object about 30 cm long, heavily encrusted but possibly made of metal, that has not identified. The site has been occupied by 2 to 16 octopuses since its discovery through December 2016, the researchers said.

The common element between both the sites is the aspect of shelter, reason enough for an initial settlement of sorts. The reason is that Octopuses carry prey items to their dens for consumption, and they discard hard remains in a midden pile which extends the shell bed over time. This makes way for more Octopuses to make their own dens, allowing for the creation of the “city”. The fact that they excavated through the shell is a matter of intrigue, and it is within these dens that “social activity” has been recorded.

As we humans equip ourselves with better cameras and technology whilst underwater, it is likely that we will come across more such settlements. This discovery lends itself to a much larger study of cephalopods, their culture and behaviour - information that sheds light on the evolution of intelligence in these beings.

For a detailed study on Octopuses, read “The Mind Of The Octopus” by Peter Godfrey-Smith.