Mike McLaren, age 10, of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, for his question:
Does an octopus lay eves?
Mrs. Octopus lays eggs, after Mr. Octopus helps her to get them started. She guards them fiercely from hungry fishes, but often many of them are stolen. The survivors hatch after about two months. The babies are miniature copies of their parents. For a while, they live in great danger of being eaten. But they are born knowing how to find food and swim to safety. They learn more octopus safety rules for themselves, as they grow older and smarter.
An octopus lives a sheltered, rather solitary life. He does not mix with friendly relatives and pays practically no attention to family ties. Nevertheless, nature insists that he father children to carry on the octopus family tree. So. once a year, when the water is just warm enough and not too warm, the male and female octopuses in tile neighborhood plan for the next generation. These plans depend a lot on the shape of the octopus and both parents look alike. The name octopus means "eight legged" and every octopus has eight leggy tentacles. He belongs in the Class Cephalogoda, which means head footed. His legs grow from a collar under his huge head. His body is a soft round bag that holds his stomach. He has no protective shell and no bones. But his soft body is sheathed in a tough, pliable layer called the mantle. His big dark eyes are very keen and his hard jaws look like a beak.
The two parents look alike to us, but they know their different mother and father roles. As usual, each infant starts fife when two different cells unite one from the father and one from the mother. The father octopus prepares a small sac of his special sperm cells. The mother prepares a supply of her special egg cells. The father uses his third right arm to place his sperm cell under the mother's mantle.
Perhaps 100,000 pairs of cells will merge and form 100,000 fertilized eggs. When they are ready, the mother octopus strews them into the sea. They look like oval beads of pale jelly and because they are rather sticky, they tend to cling together. Some form round clumps and some form strings of jellified beads. The batches of eggs may float for a while, but when possible they stick themselves to rocks and other solid objects.
About 50 different octopuses live is the sea and all of them lay eggs. The largest ones belong to the giants whose arms spread 28 feet wide. But most octopuses are not much bigger than a man's hand. All of them lay huge batches of eggs for a very good reason. Most of the eggs and the tiny babies will be devoured by hungry creatures in the sea.