RAUNCHY video footage from the depths of the Pacific Ocean has got marine biologists excited - and perplexed. For the first time, they have witnessed two deep-sea octopuses having sex - only to discover they have been watching the intimate embraces of two males of different species. "If you're going to see one, and only one, act of mating behaviour between deep-sea octopuses, you would not expect to see this," says Janet Voight, assistant curator of invertebrates at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
The octopuses were caught in the act by marine biologist Richard Lutz of Rutgers University in New Brunswick. Last December, the deep-sea submersible Alvin ventured 2512 metres below sea level to the East Pacific Rise, where it encountered the two octopuses and filmed 16 minutes of torrid footage.
Voight, an octopus expert, was called in to study the video recording. She immediately noticed that ...
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