Male Blanket Octopuses Weren’t Discovered Until 2002

There are about 300 different octopus species in the world, some of which are less well-known than others. At least the females of the rare blanket octopus were found in the 1800s, but it wasn't until 2002 that we finally located the males. How is it possible that males of a known species went so long without being found? Where did we at last find them? They were never hidden, it turns out. They were discovered there in front of us.

The blanket octopus female can grow to be quite large. They get their name from the fact that they can grow to lengths of two meters, or about six feet, and resemble living blankets floating through the water. And a man? They have a length of about 2.4 millimeters. A female can weigh up to 40,000 times more than a male. Thus, the reason we had never seen a male before was that they were simply too diminutive, and scientists had never before observed a size disparity between sexes that was so stark. Yes, our thoughts immediately turned to the idea of what reproduction may look like, but we're not sure whether we want to dwell on that idea.