If you were asked to name the cleverest animals, you might think of chimpanzees, dolphins or crows. Few people would mention an animal with no bones, eight arms and three hearts. Yet scientists who study octopuses are often amazed by what these sea creatures can do.
The octopus is a strange animal in many ways. It has three hearts and blue blood. Most of its nerve cells are not in its head but in its arms, so each arm can explore, taste and grab things almost on its own.
Octopuses are also masters of disguise. Special cells in their skin allow them to change color in a fraction of a second. Some can even change the texture of their skin to look like a rock or a piece of seaweed. This helps them hide from enemies and surprise their prey.
In aquariums, octopuses have shown impressive problem-solving skills. They have learned to open jars to get the food inside, and some have escaped from their tanks through tiny gaps, because a body without bones can squeeze through almost any opening bigger than its beak.
What makes this especially interesting is that octopuses live very short lives — most species live only one or two years — and they do not learn from their parents. Their intelligence developed in a completely different way from ours, which reminds us that there is more than one way to be clever.