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World's First Six-Legged Octopus Found

By Saeed Ahmed,
CNN
Posted: 2008-03-10 18:09:24
Filed Under: Science News
(March 4) -- English marine experts have laid their hands on an octopus that's missing two of its own: a six-limbed creature that they have dubbed 'hexapus.'

Ordinarily, octopodes have eight arms and legs. And should they lose one or more in an accident, they can grow the limbs back.

Which is what makes 'Henry' -- as staffers at Blackpool Sea Life Centre in northwest England have dubbed their find -- so unique.

His missing limbs stem from a birth defect.

"If you look closer between the legs, there's webbing that attaches each of the arms together," John Filmer of the Sea Life Centre told CNN Tuesday. "You'd assume if he'd lost one of his legs in an accident, there would be space for an arm to grow back.

"But there's no space for two extra legs to grow back. That's just how he is."

Staffers called others zoos and aquariums and scoured the Internet to see if there were records of similar creatures.

"No one has ever heard of another case of a six-legged octopus," said display superviser Carey Duckhouse.

'Henry' was picked up from a local zoo along with seven other octopodes for a new exhibit at the center. No one noticed his missing legs until he attached himself to the inside of his glass tank.

They named him 'Henry' because it alliterated well with 'hexapus.'

"It has also been mentioned in the grapevine that he was named after King Henry the VIII who had six wives when he should have had eight," Filmer, the centre's marketing director, said.

Until Henry, the most famous six-legged octopus was one that appeared in a 1955 B-movie, 'It Came From Beneath The Sea.'

As was common of many science fiction movies of the era, the film was made on a shoestring budget -- and designers left off two legs from the creature because of budget contraints.

Octopuses are renowned for having three hearts, blue blood and the ability to alter their skin complexion in the blink of an eye.

But, said the center, "(e)ven these astonishing characteristics however are commonplace compared to Henry's unique tally in the leg department."

2008-03-04 09:23:35
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299 comments

ottocartier 03:17:32 AM Mar 07 2008

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Great served on a bun with tomato sauce!

Un Polpo servita su un la pagnotta con salsa di pomodoro.

Please note: calamari are squid. Polpo is an octopus.

dpirie1996 05:21:48 PM Mar 06 2008

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A "birth defect" could be the first step toward a major evolutionary change.

cshae89546 09:07:32 PM Mar 05 2008

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An octopus by name and definition has EIGHT legs. An octopus like cephlapod with SIX legs would properly be called a sextopus.

tmhartline 12:23:42 PM Mar 05 2008

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Got to go it's getting late and I have to feed my pet sexapus.
Good night everyone.
*******************************************
Don't forget to pet it too, they like that- a lot.

tmhartline 12:16:51 PM Mar 05 2008

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mrcrowley761 12:04:33 AM Mar 05 2008

Report This! "frigging idiots - a 'hexopus' would be a gawdam six-SIDED creature"

Hexa is a numerical prefix meaning 6, not six sides. Hexa(6)pus(legs).
Does octopus denote an eight sided creature? no.

Go back to middle school before you start calling educated biologists "friggin idiots"

*****************************************************
So what is an 8 sided figure then? octagon? What is your rational for not calling a six tenticled creature a hexapus? Just curious.

mrflohr7431 12:12:51 PM Mar 05 2008

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i once saw a man with one leg

ozzyfyou 08:10:13 AM Mar 05 2008

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If it only has six (sext) legs then by definition it is NOT an Oct-(eight)-opus

aspooners 07:59:25 AM Mar 05 2008

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Or genetic tampering, or chemical waste. Please don't leave man's corrupt involvment out of the picture.

ldbaldus 07:01:11 AM Mar 05 2008

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I know what happened here....and so do these so-called "scientists"...

If you read further into the story, it is revealed that there are two Japanese scientists on the team that "discovered" this octopus...

So...the truth is ...each of these Japanese scientists ate a leg...Good sushi...

Damn coverups...When will they stop trying to dupe the world?

aftonmoon 05:39:48 AM Mar 05 2008

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It's great to read about something other then Hilliary Clinton or John W McCain. At least there is something uplifting in the news.

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