Octopuses move with a basic elegance but have no rhythm, according to a new study. Each of the unique creature's eight arms functions as if it had an unlimited number of joints.
Dr. Guy Levy of Hebrew University of Jerusalem says that what his team discovered about octopuses "surprised" them. Some aspects of the creature are "unique."
Levy explains that each arm of the octopus is "soft, flexible, and muscular." His team learned how they function by watching videos frame-by-frame as the creatures crawled in tanks filled with water.
After carefully examining the videos, the researchers concluded that octopuses differ from most animals. The latter's locomotion involves a left-right-left sequence that is usually forward, but sometimes side-to-side like a crab, according to Live Science.
The octopus moves by making its arms shorter or longer, which creates power to push its body. Instead of curving or pulling its arms, it decides "which arms" to use.
Levy explains that when octopuses move, one theory is that there is "no pattern" as they crawl in any direction. Another theory is that their movement is "too complicated" for the researchers' methods to have detected.
The searchers explained that octopuses' locomotion evolved differently than their cousin clams' because they lack outer shells. Octopuses likely evolved from a snail-like creature, giving it extreme flexibility by using long, thin arms.
Levy says that the octopuses' locomotive strategy is "simple enough," according to Observe Chronicle. It succeeds because it has few parameters.
The scientists published their findings online Thursday in the journal Current Biology. Their study's purpose is to aid engineers who are inventing soft arms for robots.