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Researchers have found a new kind of flapjack octopus in a deep-sea canyon off the coast of Australia. It has huge eyes and tentacles that are blood-red.
The Carnarvon flapjack octopus, or Opisthoteuthis carnarvonensis, is the name of the new species. It was found in Carnarvon.
Based on specimens gathered during a 2022 expedition by a research vessel (RV) investigator headed by Australia’s national scientific organization, CSIRO, it is the tenth and most recent new species to be reported.
The RV Investigator journeyed for a month to look at the comparatively unknown ecosystems and seabed biodiversity of the Gascoyne and Carnarvon Canyon Marine Parks off the coast of Western Australia.
It was the first scientific starting point marine survey of the Gascoyne Marine Park and the Carnarvon Canyon Marine Park, which are both run by Parks Australia.
Researchers utilized high-tech cameras, nets, and sleds to gather samples and take pictures from thousands of meters below the ocean surface throughout the expedition. Many specimens that were probably new to science were collected from those surveys.
Since the completion of the voyage, researchers, taxonomists, and partner museums such as the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and CSIRO’s Australian National Fish Collection, have been diligently at work trying to identify and explain some of these new species.
Dr. Tristan Verhoeff, a volunteer Systematic Taxonomist at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, wrote about the new species of flapjack octopus in a new study that came out in the Australian Journal of Taxonomy.
From this trip in 2022, researchers are discovering more and more new species, such as the painted hornshark and the parallel-spine scorpionfish.
These new findings support marine managers like Parks Australia better safeguard and preserve the amazing variety of marine species that lives in Australia’s waters.
Sources:
Tristan Joseph Verhoeff. (2025). Flapjack octopods of Australia (Cephalopoda: Cirrata: Opisthoteuthidae), Part II northwestern Australia and adjacent waters, Australian Journal of Taxonomy. DOI: 10.54102/ajt.c46g9
Deep-sea ‘flapjack’ octopus with umbrella-like body found at 1,500-meter depths. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-species-octopus-deep-sea-canyon.html
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