Photograph by Brian J. Skerry
In addition to being able to take on amazing disguises, octopuses are also accomplished swimmers. They can travel via jet propulsion, taking water into their mantle cavity—the region containing their head—and squirt it out of a tube called a siphon.
But octopuses, such as the one depicted above in the Mediterranean Sea near Ibiza, Spain, aren't as speedy as squid, which can move in bursts of over 25 miles per hour (40kmh).
Photograph by Alex Postigo, http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/photos/3747722/An octopus off Rockport, Massachusetts, feels its way in the deep dark sea using its eight arms.
Photograph by Brian J. Skerry, National Geographic CreativeAn octopus glides through green water in Fiordland National Park on the southwestern coast of New Zealand.
Photograph by Brian J. Skerry, National Geographic CreativeA young octopus off Pramuka Island near Jakarta, Indonesia, hatches from among a collection of eggs. Some octopus species lay their eggs on rocks or other areas of the seafloor, but others will hang on to their eggs, or brood them. A deep-sea species called Graneledone boreopacifica is the ultimate mother. A female found in a deep canyon off the central California coast guarded her eggs for four and a half years.
Photograph by Simon Chandra, || http&& yourshot.nationalgeographic.com, photos, 967865 &&An Octopus cyanea in the Tukangbesi Islands, Indonesia, hunts for food among the crevices of a reef.
The animal "tent hunts" by spreading the webbing between its tentacles to capture whatever prey items its arm tips flush from their hiding spots.
Photograph by Tim Lamán, National Geographic CreativeOctopus arms are a marvel of engineering, and suction cups (pictured on an octopus at Australia's Merimbula Aquarium) are a big reason why.
Not only can the animals use their suckers to "taste" their environment, they're strong enough to hold more than a hundred times their own weight.
Photograph by Jason Edwards, National Geographic CreativeA giant Pacific octopus clings to the side of its tank in Baltimore, Maryland. It's the largest octopus species—the record-holder measured 30 feet (9 metres) across and weighed over 600 pounds (272 kilograms).
Photograph by Vincent J Musi, National Geographic CreativeDay-old Octopus vulgaris, known as common octopuses, mill about in a tank at the Spanish Institute of Oceanography in Galicia. The institute's goal is to be the first to breed octopuses in captivity.
Photograph by Tino Soriano, National Geographic CreativeA young octopus emerges from hiding to feed in the Hawaiian Islands.
Photograph by David Littschwager, National Geographic CreativeA Pacific giant octopus scavenges the carcass of a spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias) off the coast of British Columbia, Canada.
Photograph by Fred Bavendam, Minden PicturesA yellow-coloured octopus seems to pose for a picture off Papua New Guinea.
Photograph by Brigitte Wilms, Minden Pictures