Octopus arms are adaptable but some are favored for particular jobs

All eight arms of an octopus can be used for whatever their cephalopod owner wishes, but some arms are favored for certain tasks. 

A new, detailed analysis of how octopuses wield their famously flexible appendages suggests that all eight arms share a skill set, but the front four spend more time on exploration and the back four on movement. The findings, published September 11 in Scientific Reports, provide a comprehensive accounting of how subtle arm movements coordinate the clever invertebrates’ repertoire of behaviors. 

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