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The unusual locomotion of a boneless, 600-lb octopus

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Behold how a boneless, 600-pound octopus can fit through really, really tiny passageways… passageways the size of a quarter, according to this National Geographic Octopus Escape clip, first posted online in 2007. Watch the octopus make its way through a “plexiglass wonderland.”

octopus in a plexi tube
Via the narration, since octopuses don’t have air bladders or gas pockets that would crush or implode at great depths, they can live in the deep sea and near the seafloor where there can be an overpowering 15,000 pounds of pressure per square inch.

octopus in a curving tube
Related reading from The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: Why is pressure different in the ocean?

Related octopus escapes: An octopus unscrews a jar from the inside.

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