Octopuses are ‘aliens’, scientists claim after DNA study

If you are among those who find octopuses a bit creepy then get ready to freak out even more. If scientists are to be believed – octopuses are basically ‘aliens’. Find it hard to believe? Well, we don’t blame you. Nearly all of us were expecting aliens to land up on earth some day – flying in their UFOs. So what makes octopuses so special anyways?

Researchers have discovered that the first full genome sequence of octopuses shows that they are totally different from all other animals. Their genome features a strikingly complex structure with 33,000 protein-coding genes, which are more than in a human.

US researcher Dr Clifton Ragsdale, from the University of Chicago states, “The octopus appears to be utterly different from all other animals, even other molluscs, with its eight prehensile arms, its large brain and its clever problem-solving abilities. The late British zoologist Martin Wells said the octopus is an alien. In this sense, then, our paper describes the first sequenced genome from an alien”, as quoted by the Metro.

The Irish Examiner reports that scientists had sequenced the genome of the California two-spot octopus in a study, which later got published in the journal Nature.