Octopus with 96 tentacles

This octopus has 88 extra tentacles. The rare specimen is on display at the Shima Marineland Squarium. From Pink Tentacle:

The preserved octopus actually has the normal number of 8 appendages attached to its body, but each one branches out to form the multitude of extra tentacles. Apparently there is no theory that fully explains the surplus tentacles, but they are believed to be the result of abnormal regeneration that occurred after the octopus suffered some sort of injury.

Extra-tentacled octopus (Pink Tentacle, thanks Nat!)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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mdhatter

Kaneda! Help Meeeeeeee!
Duane Wessels

You mean you didn’t immediately think of the 24-tentacled octopus from Schoolhouse Rock’s “Three is a magic number?”
TEKNA2007

That octopus died of indecision.
remmelt

I was only wondering why this was not tagged Cthulhu? What do you mean there is nu Cthulhu tag? I thought this was BoingBoing?
tofoomeister

“TWO OCTPUSES GOT MARRIED AND WALKED DOWN THE AISLE ARM IN ARM IN ARM IN ARM IN ARM IN ARM IN ARM IN ARM IN ARM IN ARM IN ARM IN ARM IN ARM IN ARM IN ARM IN ARM.”

http://www.amazon.com/gp/sitbv3/reader?ie=UTF8&p=S001&asin=0027180905
Anonymous

E.T., the Extra Tentacle.
Takuan

echolalia…echolalia…echolalialalialalia…echoechoecholalalia
………….echolalia
Takuan

hey! speaking of the grotesque, the monstrous and the unexpected: what did you think of Hellboy 2? Loved the Troll Market!
ROSSINDETROIT

Hellboy II was great. Best Fantasy based film I’ve seen in a long time. Thank The Gods for G. Del Toro.
Takuan

That Wink character was so seamless in CG I thought of it as an actor throughout. Great work there. The Golden Army didn’t quite though.
the_boy

“Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places.”
keratacon

Can this be the opposite of a unicorn chaser from now on?
ROSSINDETROIT

It wasn’t more than a decade ago that Mike Mignola could be found sitting at a table at a Comic Con chatting with a couple of fans and signing comics. He sold me a Hellboy pin that’s still on my motorcycle jacket. It’s gratifying that an original talent has been recognized and promoted. I look forward to Hellboy III: The Terrible Twins Arrive.
DocFish

hmmm wonder if he was left or right tentacled?
SeppTB

But does it favor one of the 96 tentacles more than the others, and how quickly can it solve a rubik’s cube?
Anonymous

Nagasaki? Hiroshima? Genetic Mutation? Nah….
Orchestra Spy

Thank you toxic pollution.
StrawberryFrog

“abnormal regeneration”, like in the last Doctor Who?
jennybean42

Oh, the hentai?
Neuron

You can get an understanding of how something like this can happen by reading Sean Carroll’s Endless Forms Most Beautiful.
Wirelizard

I think my SAN just got lowered…
Vinylsaurus

Surely, it is a sign from the FSM. Top that, tortilla Jesus!
nmcvaugh

C’thulhu fhtagn!
Anonymous

Fractal Octopus would be a great name for a techno band.
doug117

It’s into fractals.
Keeper of the Lantern

They didn’t find this octopus near the new accelerator at CERN, did they?
midknyte

fractalpus
hassan-i-sabbah

Can I just be first to say.
We salute our many tentacled overlords….
(ahh the banality of teh interweb!)
Daemon

#1: You beat me to it!
Takuan

we warned his parents about acid, but noooo.
the specialist

Eeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
Daemon

Oh, wait… I just noticed this was in Japan. Why doesn’t that surprise me?
cha0tic

MUTANT!
DiscipleN2k

In other news, tomorrow is free calamari day at the Shima Marineland Aquarium!
David Stein

#1 and #5 BOTH beat me to it. Glad to see that we geeks are all on the same wavelength. =)

- David Stein
Miss Cellania

“Abnormal regeneration”? Sound like a TUMOR!
WadeFranklin

Too many tentacles
for one octopus
to be writhing

You’re gonna writhe
writhe, writhe, writhe
ninety-six tentacles