Conductor Octopus description

Conductor Octopus

Ancestral origins: Believed to be derived from a Jurassic Vampyromorphida species, the precise origins of the conductor octopus is unknown but theorized to have been a member of Muensterellidae due to its distinctively sharply tapered and curved spoon-like gladius.

Size: When standing on its limbs the average specimen is roughly 2 meters tall, its central body measuring 3 meters from beak to the tip of its mantle. Flattened to the ground it can get as low as half a meter in height, unable to compress itself further due to its gladius.

Morphology:  The body plan of the conductor octopus has been significantly altered by its time spent in the Permian Basin Superorganism, no longer resembling any known marine cephalopods. Its mantle has become hard and leathery with the gladius reinforcing its upper portion to further protect it from predators. Its head can be retracted partially into the protective shield when it feels highly threatened, leaving only its mouth and limbs exposed to attackers. Its limbs are divided into three distinct sets comprised of locomotive, defensive and sensory manipulators. The head of the conductor octopus is typically held up and back with its eyes oriented forward to enable binocular vision and give them depth perception but have also greatly simplified to the point that they can no longer process anything more complex than movement and distance from them. What had originally been their siphon and funnel have migrated together and formed a compound structure which can also be extended from under their protective mantle between their eyes. Their beak has also become notably elongated.

The locomotive limbs are divided into two distinct lateral groups on opposite sides with webbing connecting the three limbs of each group out to half their length and the ends beyond the webbing containing cirri; however unlike most cephalopods with cirri they don't have suckers that are entirely filled with cirri or entirely toothed and are instead a compound structure where the cirrus encircles the teeth within the suckers like a sheathe with only the very tip exposed. This sheathe may be pushed down and unsheathe the full length of the teeth, which can measure up to 6cm long and resemble thick straight needles in shape. Linear batteries of electrocytes run the length of the limbs across their dorsal portion and branch down into the cirri structure where they can discharge through an iron-enriched core in the teeth. The ventral side of the locomotive limbs are heavily muscled and the differentiation between the electrocyte and muscle groups gives the limbs a distinctive humped, broad appearance. The average length of a conductor octopus's limbs when outstretched is 3.5 meters, but when standing upright they are often held out in an arched formation something like a typical arthropod, with the far ends of each limb laying flat to the surface and making them seem shorter in length than they are.

Defensive limbs exist as a pair which are oriented in opposing positions on the dorsal and ventral gaps between the locomotive limb groups. These defensive limbs are much more lightly muscled but also contain three parallel arrays of electrocytes each instead of the one on the locomotive limbs which give them a much more powerful electrical discharge than the locomotive limbs are capable of while also making these defensive limbs more typically rounded in shape. The defensive limbs don't possess any webbing and the compound cirri sheathed tooth structures run all the way from the base to the tip of the limb instead of starting halfway down their length. Female specimens are known to possess notably longer teeth on their defensive limbs, sometimes more than twice the length of those on their locomotive limbs and a more developed supporting musculature genetically related to double muscling through manipulation of myostatin but localized in nature and causing their defensive limbs to have a more ventrally flared structure.

The sensory manipulator limbs are located in an additional specialized electrically insulated pocket located laterally on each side of the conductor octopus just above the central limb of each locomotive limb set. They are able to retract and extend from these pockets as needed and resemble long, thin and highly articulated whip-like structures with hooked feather-like appendages radiating off them. These are known to possess highly sensitive electroreceptive organs which are used both for hunting and communication with other along with their diminished chromatophores, now only present around their eyes, defensive and locomotive limbs. These limbs are also used during feeding to safely consume their food.

The distal ends of all of the conductor octopus' limbs can be regenerated but only for the last three suckers of each limb on average.

Method of Locomotion:

Defensive Behavior:

Predatory Behavior:

Modes of Communication:

Social Behavior:

Reproductive Behavior: The conductor octopus does not use a modified arm for reproduction and instead its reproductive organs have migrated to a specialized pocket under its hardened mantle where spermatophore are created by males and where they are temporarily stored by the females until a clutch of eggs is ready to be lain, and egg-laying is accomplished by a duct which can be extended from its protected location within this specialized pocket as needed.