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The Argonaut Octopus Has Mastered the Free Ride

In 2019, the photographer Harris Narainen had just wrapped up a night dive off Anilao in the Philippines and begun his staggered ascent to the surface when his dive leader pointed a flashlight at something bright and yellow. Narainen looked over and saw a tiny shelled octopus called an argonaut, or paper nautilus, clinging to […]

Villanueva and the marine biologists Fernando Á. Fernández-Álvarez and Josep-Maria Gili realized these photos could offer scientists insight into what substrates argonauts commonly prefer. Females, which can grow longer than 14 inches, secrete a thin, ridged shell that help the octopuses attain neutral buoyancy in the water and protect their eggs. After the researchers analyzed the photos, they found that most large females preferred to scoot around on plastic waste, plant debris, and true jellyfish in the class Scyphozoa.

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