The Amazing Octopus

I saw this discovery type show on PBS last night about octopus. I kind of fancy myself an animal buff. I thought I had a pretty good understanding of quite a few animals...I had NO IDEA however about the octopus. It is quite an amazing creature. For one thing I thought there was only one type of octopus(the giant Pacific octopus is the one I'm semi-familiar with). I mean I knew about the eight legs, strong suckers that break open crustaceans and clams, the venomous beak inside the mouth and the waste tube. What I didn't know astounded me. Apparently many species of octopus can change color and I mean from amazing bright colors to rock like colors for camouflage. They put the chameleon to shame...it's not just like they change color a little bit gradually. They change instantly. They can also change the very texture of their skin! They did this for camouflage, as a threat to intruders and during courtship(which incidentally is also very interesting). I saw amazing things like a pacific giant eating a shark, an Australian species that searched the shallows for food with much of it's "head" sticking out of the water, and even two species crawling out of the water across rocks during a chase and even one small species who can drop it's arm if it gets captured and grow a new one! They are incredible, adapting to live in every ocean and sea from the arctic to the Mediterranean.
I feel kind of silly that when we were at the Aquarium Friday we were lamenting that the octopus is so boring...it never moves and every time we go it's in the same place.  {smacking self in head} Oh yeah, it's NOCTURNAL!