Weird Batman-Caped Japanese Octopus: Sunday Fun Post 1

For all the DITM fans visiting here over the weekend, I wanted to give you a few fun posts. I have been having a lot of correspondence lately from researchers and technicians in Japan working on the concepts I write about (i’ll post the real Japanese medical technology posts next week). In a burst of research and link-exchange I was sent these strange clips.

First is a new species of octopus recently discovered that defends itself with a Batman Cape. As they write:

Most octopi squirt thick clouds of black ink to confuse predators. Tremoctopus, or blanket octopus (murasakidako in Japanese) when threatened, unfurls a giant sheet of webbing that trails behind like a cape. The webbing breaks apart rather easily when attacked — much like a lizard’s tail — and it gets wrapped around the predator’s face, giving the octopus a chance to flee.

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