Cephalopod Intelligence

Below is a link to an online article on the website for the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), a major conservation organization. The article is called “Armed But Not Dangerous” by Doug Stewart and discusses the idea that cephalopods, particularly the octopus, may be the most intelligent invertebrates on Earth.

The article describes research which shows that octopuses are not only able to learn through conditioning, but also learn by watching others, something that we previously thought was outside the ability of invertebrates. The article also goes on to explain that the nervous system required to control and process all of the octopuses tentacles, suckers, and sensory information is rather large and complicated. Their intelligent may just be a byproduct of having so many arms.

Read through this article and many others at the NWF website to learn about mollusks and other marine organisms.