• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

How Do You Age An Octopus? Count Their “Rings” Like Trees

April 15, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

The question of how to tell how old an octopus is has been at the forefront of researchers’ minds as they seek effective strategies to help age these animals, and thereby work to combat issues associated with overfishing and the growing demand for commercially harvesting octopuses for consumption. 

Octopuses typically have pretty short lifespans, depending on the species. They may live as little as 6 months to a year – the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) has a lifespan of 1-2 years in the wild while the giant Pacific octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) can live for 3-5 years. But how do you go about telling the age of these eight-armed cephalopods?

Advertisement

Current techniques for octopus aging include looking at growth increments in the hard structures of these animals, such as in their beaks or stylets, similar to looking at the rings of a tree trunk. Other techniques involve using a proxy for age such as measuring the eye lens diameter or the weight of the animal.

“Over the past 30 years, various studies have explored different methods to age octopus, but only a small number of researchers worldwide have the hands-on knowledge to execute these methods in the laboratory,” said University of South Australia marine ecologist Dr Zoe Doubleday in a statement. 

Given these different methods, the team has put together a guide to outline different techniques to age an octopus. One such measure is to use stylets, structures made of cartilage on either side of the mantle of the octopus. Stylets are formed in layers that are slowly deposited as the octopus ages. While stylets are a good way of measuring age, they vary between species in terms of shape and increment variability and may not be the best way to measure age in all octopus species. This gets extra tricky when you take into account that octopus growth rings measure days, not years. 

“Understanding an octopus’s age helps to keep fisheries sustainable,” said PhD student Erica Durante. “If you know a species’ age, you can estimate how fast they grow and reproduce and how much you can catch to keep a fishery sustainable.”

Advertisement

Octopus fisheries have expanded in recent years and are expected to keep growing to keep up with global demand. Each year, 400,000 octopuses are estimated to be gathered from around 90 countries across the world. By learning the best methods to accurately estimate the ages of these animals, the team hopes that long-term maintenance and sustainable management practices can be put in place. 

“By publishing this guide and making the knowledge accessible to anyone, we can help keep fisheries sustainable and ensure this incredible animal continues to survive and thrive,” concluded Dr Doubleday.

The guide is published in the journal Marine and Freshwater Research. 

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Canadian opposition leader tells debate: ‘I’m driving the bus,’ won’t bow to party hardliners
  2. “Man Of The Hole”: Last Known Member Of Uncontacted Amazon Tribe Has Died
  3. This Is What Cannabis Looks Like Under A Microscope – You Might Be Surprised
  4. Will Lake Mead Go Back To Normal In 2024?

Source Link: How Do You Age An Octopus? Count Their "Rings" Like Trees

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Polar Vortex Patterns Explain Winter Cold Snaps Against Background Warming Trend
  • Scientists Tracked An Olm For 2,569 Days And It Did Not Move An Inch
  • Look Out For “Fireballs”: The Best Meteor Shower Of 2025 Is About To Commence, According To NASA
  • Why Do Many Large Language Models Give The Same Answer To This “Random” Number Query?
  • Adidas Jabulani: The World Cup Football So Bad NASA Decided To Study It
  • Beluga Whales Shake Their Blob-Like Melons To Say Hello And Even Woo A Mate, But How?
  • Gravitational Wave Detected From Largest Black Hole Merger Yet: “It Presents A Real Challenge To Our Understanding Of Black Hole Formation”
  • At Over 100 Years Of Age, The World’s Oldest Elephant Passes Away In India
  • Ancient Human DNA Reveals Earliest Zoonotic Diseases Appeared 6,500 Years Ago
  • Boys Are Better At Math? That Could Be Because School Favors Them Over Girls
  • Looptail G: Most People Can’t Recognize A Letter You Have Seen Millions Of Times
  • 24-Million-Year-Old Protein Fragments Are Oldest Ever Recovered, A Robot Listened To Spoken Instructions And Performed Surgery, And Much More This Week
  • DNA From Greenland Sled Dogs – Maybe The World’s Oldest Breed – Reveals 1,000 Years Of Arctic History
  • Why Doesn’t Moonrise Shift By The Same Amount Each Night?
  • Moa De-Extinction, Fashionable Chimps, And Robot Surgery – No Human Required
  • “Human”: Powerful New Images Mark The Most Scientifically Accurate “Hyper-Real 3D Models Of Human Species Ever”
  • Did We Accidentally Leave Life On The Moon In 2019 – And Could We Revive It?
  • 1.8 Million Years Ago, Two Extinct Humans Had One Of The Gnarliest Deaths In History
  • “Powerful Image” Of One Of The World’s Rarest Tigers Exposes The Real Danger In Taman Negara
  • Evolution, Domestication, And A Lot Of Very Good Boys: How Wolves Became Dogs
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version