A powder-blue octopus, the size of a golf ball, surfaces

Researchers with the Charles Darwin Foundation have described a new species of deep-sea octopus near the Galapagos Islands, a powder-blue, golf-ball-sized creature now formally named Microeledone galapagensis. The team first spotted it on footage from a remotely operated vehicle, where the audio captures scientists reacting roughly the way anyone would. "He's tiny!" "It's blue!" Octopus expert Janet Voight, brought in to identify it, said she knew immediately it was "something really special." Rather than dissect the single specimen, she built a 3D model from CT scans. The octopus is blue on top and deep purple underneath, coloring Voight believes helps it hide bioluminescent prey from predators while it eats. Its closest relatives in the Megaleledonidae family are larger animals that live in cold Antarctic waters, nowhere near the Galapagos. Voight has studied octopuses for four decades. "Hardly anybody on Earth has ever gotten to see them," she said. "I just feel lucky that I got to work with them."