Octopus is 'mum of the year'
A deep-sea octopus has been observed nursing her eggs for more than four years, doubling the longest brooding time ever seen in the animal kingdom.
Researchers, who watched the marine mum's record-breaking behaviour from a robotic submarine. say she was allowing her embryos sufficient time to develop in the cold water.
The discovery was made by a team from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in a canyon 1.4km beneath the Pacific, off California.
Here, Kerry Perkins, a marine biologist at SeaLife in Brighton, UK, speaks to the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 about the news.
31 Jul 2014
- From the section Science & Environment