Octopuses have no rhythm.
Their legs can shimmy in any direction, without any clear pattern and regardless of which way their head is pointed. Other animals don’t move this way, suggesting that the octopus has a motion command center in its nervous system that is unlike any other, researchers report in the May 4 Current Biology. The finding may lead to more nimble robots, the scientists say.
Videos of Octopus vulgaris crawling across the bottom of a tank and between cinder blocks reveal that an arm of an octopus contracts, sticks to a surface and then extends, propelling the animal forward. The videos also show that each arm pushes the octopus in only one direction, so the direction of movement depends only on which arms are recruited for pushing and not on how they push. Such agility may have been an adaptation to the octopus’ ecological niche amid the rocks and crevices of the seafloor.