Scientists have revealed how octopuses can 'taste' things by simply touching them with the suction cups on their tentacles. By detecting these signals with their tentacles and their chemotactile receptors, octopuses can also avoid toxic prey. Bellono and colleagues had already shown that the California two-spot octopus (octopus bimaculoides) responds differently when its suckers touch a prey item versus another object. To learn more, the researchers looked more closely at the octopuses' suckers to identify the discrete populations of chemotactile receptors. They found the only substances the octopuses receptors responded to were a non-dissolving class of naturally occurring chemicals known as terpenoid molecules.

Source: Daily Mail October 29, 2020 16:09 UTC