2026-05-26T06:17:00-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
在加拉帕戈斯群岛附近的海底，一台由科学家操控的潜水器发现了一只和海水一样蓝的神秘章鱼，它“可以蜷缩在你的手掌中”。
一段录制下的画面显示，当这位兴奋的科学家首次从潜水器传回的影像中看到这只天蓝色头足类动物时，她喊道：“它好小！是蓝色的！”
根据周一发布的研究报告，查尔斯·达尔文基金会的研究团队刚刚在水下约5900英尺处发现了一个新的章鱼物种。
“我一眼就知道这是某种非常特别的东西，”被邀请鉴定这个奇特物种的章鱼专家珍妮特·沃伊特说道。
最初，这位芝加哥菲尔德自然历史博物馆的馆长只能依靠该动物的照片进行研究。随后她收到了邮寄来的该章鱼的防腐标本。
“它送达时，我心想‘哦！我的天！它太美了，’”沃伊特告诉法新社。
她立刻产生了兴趣，因为已知形态相近的章鱼最近的栖息地是在乌拉圭沿海——位于南美洲另一侧的另一个大洋中。
通常在描述新的章鱼物种时，需要将标本解剖，以便检查其嘴部、喙、牙齿和其他部位。
“我们只有这一件标本，所以我不想把它拆开，”沃伊特说道。
取而代之的是，菲尔德自然历史博物馆的团队使用CT扫描拍摄了数千张X射线图像，随后将它们整合为该章鱼的3D模型，揭示了其内部结构。
“花一整天时间研究其他人类从未见过的东西，这种感觉无与伦比，”菲尔德博物馆X射线实验室负责人斯蒂芬妮·史密斯在一份声明中说道。
“深紫色”
这个被命名为Microeledone galapagensis的新物种，除了其蓝色色调外还有其他独特之处——据信蓝色是自然界中最罕见的颜色。
这种章鱼似乎是Megaleledonidae科的小个子成员，该科的其他成员通常体型大得多，栖息在环绕南极洲的南大洋中。
“它短粗的小手臂上只有一排吸盘，这让它区别于我们熟悉的大多数章鱼，”沃伊特说道。
她补充道：“即便在其他手臂短小且只有一排吸盘的物种中，它的体色和背部光滑的皮肤也让它与众不同。”
沃伊特表示，这种章鱼背部呈淡蓝色，腹部则是“非常深的紫色”。
“我们认为这种色彩图案有助于它自保。如果章鱼抓住了会发光的猎物，那束光可能会吸引捕食者，进而捕食章鱼，”她解释道。
“所以章鱼会用深色的腕膜盖住猎物，以此保护自己。”
令人惊讶的是，在深海中发现新的章鱼物种并不罕见——尤其是在尚未被充分探索的区域，而这样的海底区域占比极大。
“如果把地球上所有的陆地都拼凑起来，也无法覆盖太平洋的面积，”沃伊特指出。
她补充说，自己上一次发现新章鱼是在2023年，地点在哥斯达黎加沿海。
这种新的蓝色章鱼首次被发现是在2015年，靠近达尔文岛——该岛以这位英国科学家命名，他对加拉帕戈斯群岛的考察帮助他形成了进化论。
根据菲尔德自然历史博物馆的资料，这也是沃伊特在四十年研究章鱼进化的职业生涯中，首次牵头团队正式描述新的章鱼物种。
“这些生活在深海里的小章鱼，地球上几乎没人见过它们。能和它们打交道，我感到无比幸运，”沃伊特说道。
沃伊特对该物种的研究发表在《Zootaxa》期刊上。
全球目前已知约有300种章鱼，栖息在世界各大洋中。
2024年，一个科学家团队称他们在哥斯达黎加附近海域发现了四种新的章鱼物种。
Strange new species of blue octopus discovered by scientists 5,900 feet underwater: “It’s beautiful”
2026-05-26T06:17:00-0400 / CBS News
On the ocean floor near the Galapagos Islands, a submersible controlled by scientists came across a mysterious octopus as blue as the ocean that could “could curl up in the palm of your hand.”
“He’s tiny! It’s blue!” one excited scientist was recorded as saying when she first caught sight of the cerulean cephalopod on footage transmitted from the sub.
The team from the Charles Darwin Foundation had just discovered a new species of octopus about 5,900 feet below the water’s surface, according to research published on Monday.
“Right away, I knew it was something really special,” said octopus expert Janet Voight, who was asked to identify the strange species.
At first the curator at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago had to make do with photos of the animal. Then she received its preserved body in the mail.
“When it arrived, I was like ‘Oh! My goodness! It’s beautiful,’” Voight told AFP.
The new species of octopus, 5,800 feet deep in the ocean near Isla Darwin. Charles Darwin Foundation
She was immediately interested because the closest known octopus of that shape lives off the coast of Uruguay — in a different ocean on the other side of South America.
Normally to describe a new octopus species, a specimen needs to be cut open so that its mouth, beak, teeth and other parts can be examined.
“We only had the one specimen, so I didn’t want to take it apart,” Voight said.
Instead, the team at the Field Museum used CT scans to take thousands of X-ray images, then compiled them to make a 3D model of the octopus, revealing its insides.
“There’s nothing like spending the day looking at something no other human has ever seen,” the Field Museum’s X-ray lab head Stephanie Smith said in a statement.
“Deep purple”
The new species, named Microeledone galapagensis, stands out for reasons other than its blue hue, which is believed to be the rarest color in nature.
The octopus appears to be the runt of the Megaleledonidae family, whose members are normally much larger and live in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica.
“Its stubby little arms with only one row of suckers set it apart from most octopus we are familiar with,” Voight said.
Even among “other species with short little arms and a single sucker row, its coloration and smooth skin on the back surface separate it,” she added.
While the octopus is light blue on its back, underneath it is a “very deep purple,” Voight said.
“We think this color pattern helps keep it safe. If the octopus grabs a prey item that emits light, that light may attract predators that might then eat the octopus,” she explained.
“So the octopus puts its dark-colored web over the prey item, keeping itself safe.”
Surprisingly, it is not uncommon to find new species of octopus in the deep sea — particularly in areas that have not been well explored, which is a massive amount of the ocean floor.
“If you took all the land on Earth and pieced it together, you would not cover the Pacific Ocean,” Voight pointed out.
She added that she had last seen a new octopus in 2023, off the coast of Costa Rica.
The first sighting of the new blue octopus was made in 2015 near Darwin Island, named after the English scientist whose visit to the Galapagos helped him form the theory of evolution.
It’s also the first new octopus species that Voight has officially led a team of scientists in describing, in her four-decade career studying octopus evolution, according to the Field Museum.
“These are little octopuses that live in the deep sea, and hardly anybody on Earth has ever gotten to see them. I just feel lucky that I got to work with them,” Voight said.
Voight’s research on the species was published in the journal Zootaxa.
There are around 300 species of octopus worldwide, living in all of the world’s oceans.
In 2024, a team of scientists said thety discovered four new species of octopus in the waters off Costa Rica.