Four and a half years: that is, at the moment, the record for egg incubation in the animal kingdom . This has been announced by scientists from the University of Rhode Island and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.
The female that invests all that time in her offspring is that of the octopus Graneledone boreopacifica , a species that lives in the depths of the Atlantic and Pacific.
Biologists have discovered this extreme case of maternal dedication when, during one of their dives in the waters of Monterey Bay (California), they found a female Graneledone boreopacifica perched on a rocky ledge, about 1,400 meters deep.
Later, in successive explorations during four years, the divers verified that it did not move from there, increasingly pale and flabby. It seems that the mother practically did not eat : all her energy was concentrated on keeping the octopuses growing in the eggs clean, well oxygenated and safe from predators.
There were 160 of them , as the researchers counted when they found the remains of the hatching. At the cost of their mother's health, the young Graneledone boreopacifica were born more developed than those of other cephalopod species , which is an evolutionary advantage.
