It's Alive Animals

When octopuses dance beak to beak

The larger Pacific striped octopus does mating, motherhood and hunting like nobody else

Octopus

SMOOCH  Two larger Pacific striped octopuses mate beak-side to beak-side, defying what people thought they knew about octopus intimacy.

R. Caldwell

By Susan Milius

This article is only available to Science News subscribers.

Subscribers, enter your e-mail address to access our archives.

Not a subscriber?

Science News is a nonprofit.

Support us by subscribing now.

More Stories from Science News on Animals

  1. scores of small silver fish swimming
    Animals

    Tiny crystals give a plain fish twinkling, colorful dots under light

    By Susan Milius
  2. lion yawning
    Life

    Yawning helps lions synchronize their groups’ movements

    By Jake Buehler
  3. male fairy wrasse fish
    Life

    Flamboyant fishes evolved an explosion of color as seas rose and fell

    By Jake Buehler
  4. piles of grasshoppers on a sidewalk
    Animals

    Weather radar shows 30 metric tons of grasshoppers swarmed Las Vegas one night

    By Susan Milius
  5. a collage of deep sea fish larvae
    Animals

    Dazzling underwater photos capture new views and scientific detail of fish larvae

    By Devin A. Reese
  6. two bald eagles in a tree
    Animals

    A toxin behind mysterious eagle die-offs may have finally been found

    By Susan Milius
  7. rabbit standing on front paws
    Animals

    A gene defect may make rabbits do handstands instead of hop

    By Erin Garcia de Jesús
  8. whitefly
    Life

    A plant gene may have helped whiteflies become a major pest

    By Jonathan Lambert

From the Nature Index

Paid Content