Researchers have discovered a fascinating, previously undescribed animal species in the deep sea off the Galápagos Islands: a tiny blue octopus.
May 25, 2026, 07:36May 25, 2026, 07:36
The animal, which is only about the size of a golf ball, is described in the journal “Zootaxa” as a new species called Microeledone galapagensis.
This is what Microeledone galapagensis looks like.Image: Charles Darwin Foundation
The discovery dates back to a deep-sea expedition with a research vessel in 2015. The crew steered a remotely operated underwater robot (ROV) over the seabed near Isla Darwin in the far northwest of the Galápagos archipelago. The camera filmed the little octopus on an underwater mountain at a depth of around 1,773 meters.
“I had never seen anything like that before”
Video recordings of the mission document the scientists’ enthusiasm: “It’s tiny” and “It’s blue,” they recorded their first impressions. Two additional specimens were observed during the expedition, and a female individual was captured for research.
Janet Voight, an octopus expert at the Field Museum in Chicago and lead author of the study, immediately recognized the special nature of the find. “I had never seen anything like it,” she said. The octopuses have short arms that are around three to four centimeters long, each with around 30 suckers.
Since the team had only caught one animal of the new species, they faced a scientific challenge. A classic species description usually requires examining and describing typical features such as mouthparts and organs, which would have required cutting the animal open. To avoid killing the animal, Voight and Stephanie Smith, head of the CT lab at the Field Museum, used high-resolution micro-computed tomography (CT).
Using this method, thousands of X-ray cross-sectional images were digitally assembled into a precise 3D model. This made it possible to make the finest details of the internal organs and mouth visible without harming the mollusk. (sda/dpa)