The list of endangered or extinct species grows faster now than ever before on Earth, scientists say. Last week, another animal popular in the northwestern corner of the United States faces a similar fate. The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus will be the newest animal added to the rapidly growing list of endangered animals. The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus (Octopus paxarbolis) measures 30-33 centimeters as an adult and is similar in many ways to other cephalopods. Cephalopods are marine animals with a prominent head and arms or tentacles. The birth and first months of life of the Octopus paxarbolis is like every other species of octopus in that it spends all of its time in an aquatic environment. However, over millions of years of evolution, the Octopus paxarbolis has developed an amphibian-like skin that minimizes water loss. In addition, similar to how a human baby adapts to a world in air, the Octopus paxarbolis has adapted to breathing oxygen. Their lungs are not as developed as a human’s lungs. This allowed this species of octopus to live the majority of its life in trees. The lungs of an Octopus paxarbolis must maintain a flow of very moist air to be most fit. For this reason, the habitat of the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus is limited to a small northwest corner of the United States where rainfall and humidity are abundant.
Source: Columbia Tribune, August 26, 2015
http://www.columbiatribune.com/arts_life/family_life/endangered-pacific…
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