Octopuses move in the water with their tentacles and their movements are very unique and elegant. Researchers suggest that the octopuses' elegant movement does not have any rhythm.
Octopuses have eight tentacles, which are soft, muscular and very flexible. Guy Levy, who is a postdoctoral researcher of neurobiology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the lead author of the study, suggests that their research involve understanding how octopuses coordinate their movement in the water.
Levy revealed that the study included observing frame-by-frame movements of octopuses in water tanks. Levy explains that octopuses are bilateral symmetric that means their right and left sides are exact mirror images. The majority of bilateral-symmetric animals face towards the front while in movement.
However, octopuses have the ability to move in any direction and can change their direction without changing the direction of their body. Each arm of the octopus can push the creature in a new direction.
"It simply chooses other arms to push the body, and the direction is changed automatically," says Levy.
Watching the videos of octopuses, the researchers also found that octopuses can move by elongating or shortening their arms. The marine creature does not pull or bend its tentacles to make a move.
"It only has to decide which arms to use, and not how to use them. It's a very simple solution to a very complicated problem," added Levy.
The study did not find any detectable rhythm in the movements of octopuses. Most other animals have a rhythm when they move. Humans have two legs and have to move their legs in a left-right pattern to for moving forward.
While the study did not find any movement patterns in the arms of an octopus, the researchers, however, did find movement patterns in individual arms, which is while they elongate or shorten.
The study researchers believe that octopuses have such unique movement patterns probably due to the absence of an outer shell.
Levy suggests that the study regarding the crawling pattern of octopuses will continue as it will help scientists to create robotic arms that can replicate the movements of an octopus' arm.
Photo: Brian Gratwicke | Flickr
