The team from the Charles Darwin Foundation had just discovered a new species of octopus nearly 1,800 meters below the water’s surface near the Galapagos Islands, according to research published in the journal Zootaxa on 25 May.
The new species, named Microeledone galapagensis, stands out for reasons other than its blue hue, which is believed to be the rarest color in nature.
The octopus appears to be the runt of the Megaleledonidae family, whose members are normally much larger and live in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica.
