But researchers have now learned that the giant Pacific octopus (GPO)—the largest known octopus on Earth, ranging from California to Alaska to Japan—is actually two species. Is it any surprise, then, that we know so little about the animal? In addition, marine biologists and ecologists have long suspected that the giant Pacific octopus might actually be better thought of as an umbrella term encompassing a bunch of different species. During the Alaska Department of Fish & Game shrimp surveys of 2012 and 2013, David Scheel, a marine biologist at Alaska Pacific, and Nathan Hollenbeck, an undergraduate student at the school at the time, collected 21 live octopuses that were snared as bycatch in shrimp pots. The seven strangers also had strange eyelash-like protuberances, and two white spots on the front of their heads, whereas the typical giant Pacific octopus has only one. Advertisement 
 
 To confirm that the visually distinct group matched the genetically distinct one, Hollenbeck cut off tiny pieces of the octopuses’ arms. Frilled giant octopuses appear to be less widely distributed than GPOs—Hollenbeck and Scheel have collected reliable reports of the species only from Juneau to the Bering Sea. There’s only one creature that knows everything that’s going on, watches everyone who walks by, and judges it all. No one knows whether that poses a threat to the species’ survival. When they choose to come out, giant Pacific octopuses don’t just swim around doing their normal octopus things—they perform. About the frill, Scheel said, “I’ve been thinking: why would an octopus have a ledge coming off its body like that?
– The world has a new octopus: Meet the "frilled giant Pacific octopus," newly detected by a student at Alaska Pacific University working on his senior thesis, reports Earther. The creature resembles the familiar giant Pacific octopus, but Nathan Hollenback not only laid out some distinctive visual differences but took DNA samples that proved it was indeed a new species. One easy giveaway is that the octopus, whose Latin name is still pending, has two white spots in the front of its head, while its more common cousin has one. As its name suggests, the new octopus also has a frill along the length of its body. “Presumably, people have been catching these octopuses for years and no one ever noticed,” says David Scheel, Hollenbeck's adviser. The pair presented their findings in the American Malacological Bulletin. Given that the giant Pacific octopus is a "master of deception," Elijah Wolfson at Quartz thinks it's fitting that the new cousin has essentially been lurking undetected right under the noses of marine biologists for years. The GPO is known to inhabit a wide swath of the northern Pacific, from the western US coast to the shores of Japan, but the researchers for now estimate that the frilly new species has a smaller range, from Juneau, Alaska, to the Bering Sea. They also think it generally prefers deeper waters. News stories about the discovery suggest it's possible that we may someday come to view "giant Pacific octopus" as more of an umbrella term that encompasses various species rather than one distinct species of its own. (Wales recently had an odd octopus invasion.)