![tree octopus tree octopus](https://i0.wp.com/scvnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/octopus04.jpg)
The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus is an Internet hoax created by Lyle Zapato, a Washington-based author and Web publisher, in 1998. However, a little bit of common sense and knowledge of the world around, can help us differentiate between the probable and the impossible. One might initially be taken by surprise at such hoaxes that abound in the world of Internet. By now, does the term Internet hoax start knocking at the back of your mind? If it does, then you obviously haven’t lost your hold over common sense. This order lies in the phylum mollusca and those who remember their science well, would know that the phylum mollusca is the largest MARINE phylum. Like all other octopuses of the SEAS, the tree octopus also belonged to the order Cephalopod. Did I mention molluscs? Now there lies the first clue. Wow! Again such a close-to-being-brilliant explanation to validate the existence of these tree dwelling molluscs. But what about their life out of water? Well the creator of the site claimed that life of these octopuses on trees laid the foundation for development of human brain in primates. OK, this did mention some use of the suckers on land like the suction pads of lizards. The site mentioned that the suckers that I knew the octopuses of the OCEANS used to trap their preys, were adapted to work as sucking pads by the arboreal octopus to cling to foliage of trees. With all this information I had to read more about this octopus, real or fake.Īs I continued reading, I found more amusing facts about it. The site gave a detailed and very credible information of the habit, habitat and the life cycle of the TREE octopus. It belonged to the genera octopus and the species paxarbolis. The site actually talked of a certain tree octopus, that it turned out, was more popularly known as the Pacific Northwest tree octopus. For a few seconds, I stared at the site that ranked first, like a goldfish out of water. So with my strong belief that it was some term for something not even remotely related to any living thing, let alone an octopus species, I Googled in the term tree octopus. They won’t be able to maintain their shape out of water, let alone be able to glide through branches of trees. But I dug up some information which I thought I will share with you… The website that had described the creature gave scientific data and citations about the authenticity of the Cephalopod. But conjuring an octopus swinging from one branch to another was not only disturbingly comical but comically disturbing as well. But those that lived on land or on trees? Umm, never! So after my initial cynicism on the possibility of the existence of tree octopus subsided, (well, probably I over reacted), the question that immediately sprung into my mind was, “Tree Octopus? Could it be real?” I had always seen images of those long tentacles swirling in the deep waters of the sea. Had evolution stretched so far that octopuses came out of the seas to live on trees? I had always came across octopuses either in science books or in mythical stories where they were described as giant creatures – YES, for sure. Well, science does spring quite a few unbelievable facts on us now and then.
![tree octopus tree octopus](https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/humbug/files/2015/09/tree_octopus.jpg)
But now a tree octopus?– wondered the voice inside my head when I first heard of the term. In this article we dig deeper into this Internet hoax, because that is exactly what this was! Nevertheless some practical minds would still want to dig further and find out more information, so here we go…Ī tree octopus? Well, I had heard of tree frogs. When it first appeared on the Internet in 1998, the tree octopus created quite a flutter.