As recently as the 19th century and into the early 20th century, there was a lot of seafaring lore involving stories of gigantic octopuses. You might be familiar with scary stories about sea monsters such as “the Kraken.”
Sometimes these stories commingled giant squids with octopuses. That is understandable since both animals are cephalopods and have similar-looking appendages. The octopus having eight arms and the squid having a total of ten appendages extending from their heads.
Tales of Giant Octopuses
These old stories would make mention of octopuses as long as whales being caught in various parts of the Pacific ocean. American and Canadian whalers had the most detailed stories as well as Japanese fishermen and whalers.
Mariners in the Atlantic and other parts of the world also had tales of giant cephalopods but these were more “fantastic” in nature. They were not as realistic as those from the Pacific.
It seemed as if the majority of the most credible giant octopus stories had origins in the Pacific Ocean.
Even big octopuses can fit through very small openings!
Do Giant Octopuses Really Exist?
As with most legends, there is usually a seed of truth to them. In the case of the existence of giant octopuses, yes, they do exist.
The Giant Pacific octopus is the largest known species of octopus currently in existence.
It is known to inhabit vast regions of the Pacific ocean — from the west coast of the United States all the way to Japan. This more or less coincides with the places of origin of many of the more credible old stories and legends.
How Big Is Big?
The largest know specimen of a Giant Pacific Octopus measured 30 feet in length and weighed 600 pounds. It was found washed ashore on the coast of British Columbia, Canada.
Mind you, the average size of documented specimens of this species is 17 feet in length with a weight of 150 to 175 pounds.
This doesn’t mean that the largest specimen documented was some sort of freak or aberration. In fact, many marine biologists speculate that these creatures frequently grow to sizes much larger than 30 feet. Sizes of 45 to 50 feet are believed to be attainable with a potential weight of 1,000 pounds.
Of course, those potential sizes are estimated. No specimen that large has ever been actually documented.
Why Can’t They Just Search for a Larger One?
While smaller octopus species can be found near coastal regions in habitats that include tidal pools and coral reefs, the Giant Pacific Octopus can be more elusive.
While there is a sub-species that resides close to the coast of the Northwest of the United States and Canada, most prefer habitats in deeper water of the Pacific Ocean.
Those that live closer to the coast and in shallower water are believed to be smaller than their deeper water cousins. This is what has led to the calculated average length of 17 feet for the species. This due to the fact that the majority of the specimens have come from these more human accessible areas. This tilting the average size toward the smaller end of the scale.
Larger specimens likely exist in deeper water. The ocean is a huge place.
It’s Not Official If It’s Not Documented
Larger Giant Pacific Octopuses have probably been caught by “accident.” As such, they were never properly documented. A fishing vessel will be full of fishermen, not marine biologists.
It his highly likely that larger specimens than the 30-footer have been caught. It is just that they were thrown back into the sea as their scientific value was not fully appreciated by the crew.
In marine biology, as in any scientific discipline, if it is not formally documented and cataloged — it is not official.
The Largest Octopus of All Time
When the subject of octopuses arises, it is important to remember that they have been in existence for a long time. Their earliest ancestors date back 500 million years.
This means that octopuses and “proto-octopuses” were well established during the Triassic era. This is 200 million years ago.
During that era, a large ocean-dwelling reptile inhabited the oceans. It was known as an ichthysaur and it was large. These creatures reached 20 to 40 feet in length. It had flippers — sort of like a present-day killer whale. In other words, it had lungs but lived entirely in the sea. It hunted much as orcas and toothed-whales do today.
Ichthysaurs were pretty high on the oceanic food chain. Until recently, it was thought that only megaladons (huge monster sharks) were higher.
Recent discoveries and analysis of fossilized remains of ichthysaurs have given rise to the theory of a massive monster cephalopod — possibly an octopus. It would have existed during that same time and hunted ichthysaurs. It has been nicknamed the “Triassic Octopus.”
How Big Was the Prehistoric Giant Octopus
It is estimated that this Triassic octopus measured 100 feet in length or longer.
This calculation was arrived at based on the way that fossilized bones of ichthysaurs were being found.
These bones were found in what can be called a stylized pattern. It was not a one-off case. It was repeated over and over gain.
The only way the design could have been “created” was by a creature with arms or tentacles dropping the bones onto the ocean bottom in a particular fashion and with multiple arms.
Imagine yourself after a fried chicken dinner or maybe some ribs. When you finish, you take the bones on your plate and arrange them in a particular design. Now imagine if every human did the same thing — repeated the same design. Eventually, millions of years in the future, some intelligent life form would find the fossilized remains of our chicken and ribs dinners and notice a consistent design pattern.
In the case of the Triassic octopus, the way the bones were laid out is what gave anthropologists the estimated size of over 100 feet.
Needless to say that would be huge. Over three times larger than the biggest Giant Pacific Octopus specimen documented to date.
Time Will Yield Larger Octopuses
With time, the probability of a larger octopus specimen being properly documented is high. It is also probable that further research into the possible prehistoric existence of the “Triassic octopus” will yield more evidence of even larger octopuses in the past.
Octopuses — they are truly larger than life in so many ways.
