{"id":610459,"date":"2025-12-03T23:07:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T23:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/610459\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T23:07:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T23:07:21","slug":"remains-of-seven-arm-deep-sea-creature-discovered-on-scots-beach-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/610459\/","title":{"rendered":"Remains of seven-arm deep-sea creature discovered on Scots beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

A walker spotted the tentacles of the world’s largest species of octopus<\/a> washed up on a beach in Aberdeenshire.<\/p>\n

The remains were discovered<\/a> on Sunday, November 30, Forvie National Nature Reserve at Collieston, near Ellon in Aberdeenshire.<\/a><\/p>\n

The local alerted reserve staff and after some detective work the animal was identified as a seven-arm octopus.<\/a><\/p>\n

Also known as a septopus, giant gelatinous octopus, or blob octopus<\/a>, they have eight arms like other octopus – but in males one of the arms is also a reproductive organ that they attach to females when mating, external, reports the BBC.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The remains washed up at a beach in Aberdeenshire. -Credit:Collect<\/p>\n

Marine biologist Dr Lauren Smith, of East Grampian Coastal Partnership, said seven-arm octopus<\/a> were a “remarkable and rarely documented” species.<\/p>\n

The deep-sea creatures<\/a> live hundreds of metres below the surface of the sea and females, which are larger than males, can grow to 13ft (4m) long.<\/p>\n

Forvie NNR covers about 2,471 acres (1,000 ha) of sand dunes and heath between the North Sea<\/a> and the estuary of the River Ythan and is known for seals and also has the largest tern and black-headed gull colony in mainland Scotland.<\/p>\n

Reserve staff described the tentacles<\/a> as a rare find.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson said: “We were first made aware that there was something odd on the beach over the weekend, when a local walker spotted part of the octopus on the beach.<\/p>\n

“However, we couldn’t get out until after the next high tide when only sections of the tentacles could be found.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The animal was identified as a seven arm octopus. -Credit:Collect<\/p>\n

“These were something we clearly hadn’t seen before, with a large diameter and big suckers – far too big for the common curled octopus we see around the shore here.”<\/p>\n

The reserve said it was first speculated that it could be the remains of a giant squid<\/a>, which can grow up to 14m (46ft) in length.<\/p>\n

Hwoever, the suckers<\/a> on the Forvie arms did not have teeth like a squid’s so the reserve approached Aberdeen University’s zoology department and museums, looking for advice.<\/p>\n

Eventually the arm were identified as belonging to a seven-arm octopus<\/a>, which has the scientific name Haliphron atlanticus.<\/p>\n

“These are a deep water species – usually found below 1,640ft (500m) – so it’s a puzzle how it came to be here,” said the spokesperson.<\/p>\n

“They said most of the North Sea – except the Norwegian Trench, which is about 2,296ft (700m) deep – was shallower than that.<\/p>\n

“Washed up by deep water currents? Trawled up by fishermen? We’ll probably never know,” said the spokesperson.<\/p>\n

“But it’s a fascinating find nonetheless and yet again serves to illustrate how little we know about deep-water creatures.”<\/p>\n

Dr Lauren Smith said: “This is an extraordinary find, to have a deep-water species like Haliphron atlanticus appear here is incredibly rare and offers a valuable opportunity for further study.<\/p>\n

“The recovered remains have been frozen down for further study, with some potentially being preserved as museum specimens.”<\/p>\n

She thanked another marine biologist, Dr Steve O’Shea, for his expert verification of the species.<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr Smith added: “The discovery highlights both the scientific value of community wildlife reporting and the enduring mysteries of the deep ocean.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A walker spotted the tentacles of the world’s largest species of octopus washed up on a beach in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[11531,42849,190710,190711,190712,190713,70,16,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-610459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-aberdeenshire","9":"tag-arm","10":"tag-forvie-national-nature-reserve","11":"tag-lauren-smith","12":"tag-marine-biologist","13":"tag-reserve-staff","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115658152731556899","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}