DAY 5 | Octopuses Have Zombie Tentacles

Recap: As you may have noticed, we’re a bit different here at Fringe, and in keeping with this theme, we’ve decided to provide you with cool octopus facts over the next 8 days leading up to the release of something very special & TOP SECRET 🤫...

Fact #5 Zombie Tentacles Are Real 

If you didn't already know, octopuses taste food through their tentacles. So when assessing prey, they engulf them, taste them, and then decide if they want to continue with the kill. 

But let's just say, you take a dive and encounter an octopus that is trying to engulf you and in defense try to free yourself by chopping off a tentacle. Do you know what would happen next? 

Not only does a new tentacle regrow eventually, but the dismembered one actually takes on a mind of its own.

Oh boy.

How? The severed tentacle will respond to stimuli up to an hour later and also at times attempt to move food towards a phantom mouth.

This doesn't come as a surprise, because 2/3 of their neurons are actually located in their tentacles, which allow them to act independently of their brain and other tentacles. 

This means that while they're attached, one tentacle can be grasping food while another one is prodding the seafloor looking for course number 2. Their arms are so swole they literally have a mind of their own!

Can you say the same for YOUR arms? Comment your favorite arm-focused WOD below!