tiny blue – A submersible working near the Galapagos Islands has revealed a new species of octopus nearly 5,900 feet below the surface—light blue on top, very deep purple underneath—after researchers at the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Field Museum used CT scans to s
The first time Janet Voight saw the footage, she reacted the way most people would to a color they can’t quite place. “He’s tiny! It’s blue!” the moment is captured in a recording of scientists watching the submersible transmit images from the ocean floor near the Galapagos Islands.
The animal they spotted was not just blue—it was the first sign of a new octopus species, discovered about 5,900 feet below the water’s surface. The Charles Darwin Foundation team’s finding was published on Monday in the journal Zootaxa.
Voight, an octopus expert asked to identify the strange creature, said she knew it was special as soon as she saw the evidence. At first, she had to work from photos of the animal. Then the preserved body arrived at her desk.
“When it arrived, I was like ‘Oh! My goodness! It’s beautiful’,” Voight told AFP.
The new species was named Microeledone galapagensis, and it was found near Isla Darwin at a depth of about 5,800 feet. The ocean is far from familiar coasts. but the team’s instinct was familiar: compare what they had to what already exists. The closest known octopus of that shape lives off the coast of Uruguay—across South America in a different ocean.
Normally, describing a new octopus species requires cutting open a specimen to examine the mouth, beak, teeth, and other parts. But this discovery came with only one specimen. “We only had the one specimen, so I didn’t want to take it apart,” Voight said.
Instead. researchers at the Field Museum used CT scans. taking thousands of X-ray images and compiling them into a 3D model that revealed its insides. Stephanie Smith. the Field Museum’s X-ray lab head. said in a statement: “There’s nothing like spending the day looking at something no other human has ever seen.”.
In person, Voight said, the octopus is striking in ways that go beyond its color. The animal appears to be the runt of the Megaleledonidae family. whose members are normally much larger and live in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica. Microeledone galapagensis also has stubby little arms with only one row of suckers—an arrangement that sets it apart from most octopus people are familiar with.
Even among other short-armed octopuses with a single row of suckers, Voight said the coloration and the smooth skin on the back surface separate this species. From above it appears light blue, but underneath it is “a very deep purple.”
Voight offered an explanation for why that pattern might matter. “We think this color pattern helps keep it safe,” she said. If the octopus grabs a prey item that emits light. that light may draw predators that could then eat the octopus. Her account is simple: the octopus “puts its dark-colored web over the prey item, keeping itself safe.”.
Deep-sea discoveries like this are not rare in principle. Voight noted. especially in regions that have not been well explored—an ocean floor so vast that the gaps still feel endless. She pointed out that if all the land on Earth were pieced together. it still would not cover the Pacific Ocean. She said she last saw a new octopus in 2023 off the coast of Costa Rica.
For this blue octopus. the first sighting dates back to 2015 near Darwin Island. named after the English scientist whose visit to the Galapagos helped him form the theory of evolution. Voight said it was the first new octopus species she has officially led a team of scientists in describing during her four-decade career studying octopus evolution.
“These are little octopuses that live in the deep sea, and hardly anybody on Earth has ever gotten to see them,” Voight said. “I just feel lucky that I got to work with them.”
In the wider picture, the ocean still holds plenty of unknown variety. There are around 300 species of octopus worldwide, living in all of the world’s oceans. And in 2024, a team of scientists said they discovered four new species of octopus in waters off Costa Rica.
But on this particular discovery, what stayed with Voight—and with the scientists watching the footage—was the unexpected blue. In the dark depth of 5,800 feet, a creature as small as a palm-sized find turns the unknown into something vivid enough to make a scientist smile.
Galapagos deep sea octopus new species Microeledone galapagensis Charles Darwin Foundation Field Museum CT scans Zootaxa Antarctica Megaleledonidae