Giant Pacific Octopus BriteVu Study

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Sep 15, 2020/ Off Comments / in Invertebrates
Giant Pacific Octopus BriteVu Study

The giant Pacific octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) is both fascinating and beautiful.  This is the largest octopus species and lives in the cold, oxygen rich waters of the Pacific ocean.  These intelligent animals have a short life span and only live 3-5 years in the wild.  The giant pacific octopus breeds once prior to death. After reproducing, these octopus go through a period called senescence.  During this time, the animals stop eating and use their reserves to protect the eggs (females) and then die of starvation. 

Because their anatomy is poorly understood, this octopus was submitted for a BriteVu contrast perfusion study.  The octopus went through senescence, died and underwent a special formaldehyde free preservation process followed by contrast perfusion with BriteVu Special Projects and BriteVu Enhancer.  The octopus was then scanned on an Epica Vimago scanner at 200 µm slice thickness.

This is the first time the entire cardiovascular system of the giant Pacific octopus has been seen.  This species has three hearts and an extensive vascular network supplying each arm and suction cup.  This study was in conjunction with Dr Tres Clarke at Sea World and Dr Scott Echols at Scarlet Imaging.  Special thanks to the many people who cared for the octopus while alive and the team at Parrish Creek Veterinary Clinic who worked on her for the perfusion study.

To see the octopus upper body 3D rotation, click here.

See the octopus mid body color enhanced 3D rotation, click here.

To see a close up of the tentacles with BriteVu, click here.