In the late 1970s, Panamanian diver and artist Arcadio Rodaniche observed a mysterious colony of striped octopuses off the coast of Panama. Unlike any octopus previously described, they lived unusually close to their neighbors, shared dens, mated beak-to-beak, laid multiple clutches of eggs without dying, and exhibited unique hunting strategies, all of which went against accepted ideas about how octopuses should behave. “Octopus X” tells the story of the larger Pacific striped octopus and the ma
