Octopuses are mostly made up of sucker-studded arms, each one packed with muscles and nerves that enable them to engage with their environment in ways no other invertebrate has mastered.

But how octopuses negotiate their sprawling mass of semi-autonomous limbs remains a mystery. A new study by biologists at Florida Atlantic University and the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole in the US reveals there is some method to the madness.

While each arm has a mind of its own , it turns out they do tend to use specific arms for specific tasks .

This kind of arm favoring is well-known in primates, rodents, and fish, but there's been very little research as to whether it's the case for octopuses.

To get a better grip on this phenomenon, a team led by Chelsea Bennice, a marine biolog

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