Maria Burnett, age 8, ofGreenville, Miss., for her question:

HOW MANY KINDS OF OCTOPUSES ARE THERE?

An octopus is a sea animal with eight arms called tentacles. The word octopus comes from two Greek words that mean "eight feet."

There are about 50 different kinds of octopuses throughout the world. Most of them live along the coasts of North America, Hawaii, the West Indies and the China and Mediterranean seas.

Most octopuses are about the size of a man's fist. A few types grow large, however, with some measuring 28 feet from the tip of one tentacle to the tip of another one on the other side of the body.

A female octopus will lay a cluster of as many as 180,000 nearly transparent eggs. The eggs.attach themselves to rocks and hatch in about two months. During this period of time, the female tends the eggs and does not eat. As soon as the baby octopuses are born, they are able to look for their own food. Many of the babies become food for other sea creatures.