The octopus named Costello, while napping on the glass of his tank at the Rockefeller University in New York, entered into an active sleep stage. His skin changed color and texture during that stage, which is typical for cephalopods.
He then started exhibiting strange behavior, curling his arms over his body, spinning like a cyclone and clouding half of his tank with ink. He was also grasping a pipe with unusual intensity as if he was trying to kill it. The scientists who were studying his behavior speculated that he might have been having a nightmare, but they are not sure if he woke up during the episode. Costello returned to normal after that incident, eating and playing with his toys.
A team of researchers at the Rockefeller University shared their observations in a study uploaded to the bioRxiv website, and they discussed various possible explanations for this unusual behavior, including the possibility that the octopus had a seizure or neurological problems. But the team’s lead researcher, Dr. Marcelo O. Magnasco, thinks that Costello’s behavior looked like the acting out of a dream.
To learn more, Dr. Magnasco’s team, studied footage of Costello’s activity, which was recorded as part of a behavioral and cognition study, and they found that the octopus exhibited three more shorter instances of similar behavior.
Other researchers, who were not involved in the study, think that the scientists involved should consider additional factors, such as whether Costello’s cramps might have caused that behavior. Nevertheless, the idea of dreaming in an octopus is compelling, as some researchers already suspected that cephalopods have dreams as they move through different phases of sleep.
The researchers hope that by sharing their observations, other scientists will keep an eye out for similar behaviors to learn more about this animal’s sleeping and dreaming patterns.
