You’re diving off the coast of an Indonesian island. You look down at the seabed. All around you is dark gray sand. You see a conch shell. Is the conch inside? You fl ip it over. You see a row of


suckers and a pair of eyes. It’s a coconut octopus! T ey like to hide in empty coconut shells. But any big shell will do.


coconut octopus


T e octopus climbs out of the shell. Its body is the size of your thumb. Its arms are about three times that long. T e octopus slides several arms


over the sand. T e rest of its arms move over the shell. With a push, it fl ips the shell back over and goes inside. T en it squirts a jet of water to clear a space where it can watch the world from the seafl oor.


An octopus squirts a cloud of ink at a diver.


A coconut octopus hides in coconut shells.


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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER


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