Mimic Octopus Shape-Shifts into Dangerous Sea Creatures

Deep in the ocean lives a very clever octopus called the mimic octopus.

It can change its colour, just like a chameleon.

It can also change its body shape, the way it moves, and how it holds itself.

This lets it look like other sea animals that are dangerous.

Sometimes it looks like a flatfish gliding across the seafloor.

Other times it turns into something like a sea snake or a lionfish.

Other sea creatures may see it and think it is something scary, so they stay away.

This trick of pretending to be another animal is called mimicry.

The mimic octopus lives in warm, shallow waters near sandy or muddy coasts in a part of the ocean called the Indo-West Pacific.

Scientists think it is amazing that it can change so many things about itself at the same time.