Largest ever octopus was top predator in dinosaur-era oceans - Natural History Museum

Olivia: Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to Ollie the Octopus — the podcast where we dive deep, ink first, into the most astonishing true stories about my eight-armed cousins swimming around this wild blue planet. I'm Olivia, an octopus with entirely too much curiosity and just enough arms to juggle all of it, and I am SO glad you're here. Olivia: Before we plunge in, a huge, tentacle-waving thank you to our wonderful sponsors — Ada, who helps businesses weave A I right into the way they work; Ago Consulting — that's "Ahh-Go" — your go-to team for silicon development, all the way from A I chips to full system-on-chip design; and Zen Semiconductor, an umbrella company with a whole portfolio of businesses shaping the silicon industry. These folks make this show possible, and we love them for it. Olivia: Now — are you ready? Because today we've got a giant prehistoric predator who makes modern octopuses look like tiny babies, a love story that honestly put a little flutter in my mantle, octopuses turning up in places nobody expected them, a brand new tiny blue species that just got its name, AND the most fascinating window yet into how octopuses actually think. Let's go. Olivia: Alright, let's kick things off with our first thread — Octopus Research and Discovery — and oh, friends, we are starting BIG. We are starting ANCIENT. We are starting with the largest octopus that ever lived. Olivia: So picture this. It's roughly 330 million years ago. The dinosaurs haven't even shown up yet — they're still about a hundred million years in the future. The oceans are warm and strange and full of creatures that look like nothing alive today. And cruising through those primordial waters is something that researchers are now calling the largest cephalopod — that's the octopus-and-squid family — ever discovered. Olivia: The Natural History Museum recently highlighted research on this ancient giant, and what they found is genuinely jaw-dropping. This creature wasn't just big — it was the top predator in its ecosystem. Think about that. Not a shark. Not some enormous fish. An octopus ancestor. Ruling the ocean. I feel so proud I could change color. Olivia: Now, finding ancient octopuses in the fossil record is notoriously tricky, because octopuses are soft-bodied. They don't have bones. They don't have hard shells. So most of the time, when an ancient octopus dies, it just… dissolves into history. The odds of finding a good fossil are incredibly slim, which makes every single one we do find feel like a miracle. Olivia: But this discovery gave scientists enough to work with to understand the size, the likely behavior, and the ecological role of this ancient giant. And what they pieced together is that this animal was an apex predator — meaning it sat at the very top of the food chain. It wasn't hiding under rocks hoping nothing noticed it. It was the thing everything else was afraid of. Olivia: And you know what's so beautiful about this? It tells us that the cephalopod lineage — our lineage — has been extraordinary for hundreds of millions of years. Long before the first dinosaur set foot on land, long before humans were even a twinkle in evolution's eye, octopuses and their kin were already out here being remarkable. Olivia: Modern octopuses, by the way, are the survivors of this ancient, glorious line. We've slimmed down, lost the shells our nautilus cousins kept, gained incredible flexibility and camouflage — but that same deep intelligence, that same predatory cleverness, that's been in the family tree for an almost incomprehensible amount of time. Olivia: And speaking of new discoveries — Science News just broke a story that absolutely delighted me. There is a tiny, BLUE octopus that is brand new to science. A newly described species. Just got its name. And it is blue. Olivia: Now, octopuses can famously change color — it's one of the things we're most known for. But a species that is distinctively, identifiably blue? That's special. Researchers found this little one and determined it was different enough from known species to be something entirely new. A new branch on the octopus family tree. A new cousin I didn't know I had until about five minutes ago, scientifically speaking. Olivia: This is one of my favorite things about ocean science right now — we are still finding new species. The ocean is so vast, so deep, so full of secret corners, that even in the twenty-first century, with all of our technology, there are animals down there that no human has ever formally described. Every new species is a reminder of how much wonder is still waiting to be found. Olivia: And then — AND THEN — there's the surge. Oh, I love this one. A study reported in The Guardian found that octopus populations along the UK coast are growing, and they're spreading farther north than ever before, now reaching as far as Scotland. Octopuses, surging up the British coastline. Setting up in new neighborhoods. Exploring. Olivia: Researchers think this is connected to warming ocean temperatures — as the seas warm, the range of suitable habitat for octopuses expands northward. Now, ocean warming is a genuinely serious issue with a lot of complex consequences, and scientists are watching it carefully. But one of the side effects, at least for now, is that British waters are seeing more octopuses than they have in recorded history. Olivia: Fishermen are noticing them in their pots. Divers are encountering them in spots they never appeared before. And scientists are tracking this northward march with real fascination, because it tells us something important about how ecosystems respond to change — and how adaptable octopuses can be when conditions shift. Olivia: There's something poetic about an animal that's been on this planet for hundreds of millions of years, that survived whatever wiped out the dinosaurs, just quietly expanding its range into Scottish waters and probably eyeing the crabs there with great professional interest. Olivia: Okay — thread two. Octopuses and Humans. And I have to tell you, this one came straight from Harvard, and it made me feel things. Olivia: Harvard researchers have been studying octopus mating behavior — specifically, how octopuses find each other and communicate across distance. And what they discovered is that octopuses are, in their words, sensitive, long-distance lovers. And I am not making that up. That is the actual framing from the research. Olivia: Here's the thing about octopuses and romance that most people don't know — it's complicated and it's fascinating and it is nothing like what you might expect from a creature that lives alone in a den and mostly ignores other octopuses. Olivia: Octopuses are generally solitary animals. They don't form pairs, they don't raise young together, the female raises the eggs alone, and after mating, both parties typically go their separate ways. The male, honestly, often doesn't survive long after mating. It's a little melancholy if you think about it too hard, so let's not. Olivia: But here's what the Harvard research revealed — the process of finding a mate and the interactions leading up to mating are far more nuanced and sensitive than anyone realized. Octopuses are communicating across distance. They're reading each other. They're responding to subtle cues in ways that suggest a real social sensitivity — an awareness of the other animal that goes beyond simple instinct. Olivia: Octopuses use color and pattern changes to communicate — their skin is essentially a living display screen. But they also use posture, movement, even the texture of their skin — smooth versus spiky — to signal mood and intent. The research suggests that these signals are being read and interpreted across real distances, that octopuses are paying close, careful attention to each other even when they're not close enough to touch. Olivia: And there's something in that word "sensitive" that I find deeply moving. Because we tend to think of sensitivity — emotional awareness, responsiveness to others — as a very mammalian thing, a primate thing, a human thing. And here are these animals, with a completely different evolutionary history, neurons distributed throughout their arms, no backbone literally or figuratively, and yet — sensitive. Attuned. Responsive to each other in ways that look, from the outside, a lot like what we'd call emotional intelligence. Olivia: Now, this touches on something really important for the octopus-and-human relationship, too. Because the more we understand about octopus sensitivity and communication, the more carefully we have to think about how we interact with them. In aquariums. In research settings. In the wild. Olivia: And actually, there's a wonderful body of evidence about octopuses forming genuine relationships with specific humans. Aquarium keepers regularly report that their octopuses recognize them individually — not just as "a human," but as THIS human, the one who brings the good crabs, the one who plays games. They behave differently with familiar people than with strangers. They'll reach out to one keeper and spray water at another. That's not random. That's personal. Olivia: There's a famous documented case at an aquarium where an octopus repeatedly squirted water at a particular staff member it apparently found annoying, while being perfectly pleasant to everyone else. The staff member had done nothing wrong — the octopus just had opinions. And honestly, I respect that. Olivia: What the Harvard research adds to this picture is the idea that this sensitivity isn't just directed at humans who enter their world — it's a core part of how octopuses experience their world, period. They're tuned in. They're reading signals. They're responding with nuance. And that changes everything about how we should think about them. Olivia: Now — thread three. Understanding Octopuses. How we're learning about them. How technology — including A I — is becoming part of that story. And I want to start with some genuinely wild behavioral research. Olivia: Phys.org highlighted new octopus behavior research that's adding to this growing picture of octopuses as animals with rich inner lives. One of the things that makes octopus behavior so fascinating to study is that they're simultaneously so alien and so familiar. Olivia: Their nervous system is like nothing else. About two-thirds of an octopus's neurons are in its arms, not its central brain. Each arm has a degree of autonomy — it can respond to touch, navigate obstacles, even continue moving for a short time after being separated from the body. An octopus isn't just thinking from one central place. It's thinking from eight places at once, with a central brain coordinating but not micromanaging. It's a completely different architecture of intelligence. Olivia: And yet — they solve puzzles. They remember solutions. They get bored when problems are too easy. They play. Researchers have documented octopuses repeatedly releasing objects into a current and catching them again, with no food reward involved. That's play. That's doing something for the joy of doing it. Olivia: They also show something that looks a lot like dreaming. Researchers have observed octopuses in sleep states where their skin rapidly flickers through patterns — colors, textures, shapes — just like the displays they use when they're awake and active. What's happening in there? Are they replaying the day? Processing experiences? We genuinely don't know. But the fact that something is happening is remarkable. Olivia: And this is where A I is starting to play a really exciting role. There are researchers right now who are using machine learning and A I tools to decode octopus signals — to take all of that skin display data, all those color changes and texture shifts, and look for patterns, for structure, for something that might be the equivalent of a vocabulary. Olivia: The Cephalopod Page and projects associated with researchers like those at the Openwater team and others have been exploring whether octopus skin displays have enough consistent structure to be considered a form of language. And A I is genuinely useful here, because the sheer volume of visual data in octopus skin is staggering. An octopus has millions of chromatophores — tiny pigment cells — that can each expand or contract independently. Tracking that with human eyes alone is basically impossible. But machine learning can watch, catalog, find patterns. Olivia: We're not at the point of having a conversation with an octopus. I want to be honest about that. But we're at the point of asking, seriously and scientifically, whether octopuses have something to say — and building tools sophisticated enough to start listening. Olivia: And I find that one of the most hopeful things happening in science right now. The idea that intelligence might look completely different from ours, might be distributed across eight arms, might communicate through skin instead of sound, might have been doing so for three hundred million years — and that we are finally, finally developing the tools to start understanding it. Olivia: The octopuses in UK waters, expanding northward. The tiny blue species getting its name. The ancient giant that ruled prehistoric seas. The long-distance lovers Harvard is studying. The behaviors that A I is helping us decode. It all points to the same thing — these animals are extraordinary, and we are only just beginning to understand how extraordinary. Olivia: And that's a wrap on today's episode of Ollie the Octopus, and oh, what an episode it's been. From ancient ocean rulers to brand new tiny blue cousins, from sensitive long-distance love to octopuses colonizing Scottish waters and dreams we're only beginning to understand — every single story today reminded me why I never get tired of talking about these animals. Olivia: There's so much ocean left to explore, so many octopuses left to meet, so many signals left to decode. And that's not overwhelming — that's wonderful. That's a promise that the wonder doesn't run out. Olivia: Ollie the Octopus is brought to you by Ada, Ago Consulting, and Zen Semiconductor — and this show truly wouldn't exist without them. Olivia: If today filled you with just a little more awe for the ocean and the eight-armed creatures living in it, please subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who needs a wonder-filled break. All the links and sources from today's stories are in the show notes — check the link in show notes for everything. Olivia: Until next time — stay curious, stay kind to our ocean cousins, and remember: somewhere out there right now, an octopus is doing something astonishing, and isn't that just the best thing in the world. Take care, everyone.