Conversation

One of my favorite animals is the very rare blanket octopus. Few people have seen them firsthand. https://youtu.be/QJcXMPJ9XN8

The female has a spectacular ‘cape’ enclosing her tentacles, which makes her look larger to predators. She can grow >6.5ft or 2m!

Meanwhile, the male is smaller than a walnut. He weighs 40,000x less than the female, measuring just 2.4cm.

Blanket octopus are the most extreme example of gender size discrepancy across the (non-mircoscopic) animal kingdom. #nature #science