Pieces of eight: how octopuses choose which arms to use for different tasks

While some humans have two left feet on the dancefloor, octopuses manage to coordinate eight highly flexible arms across a host of behaviours, from foraging to den-building or moving around the seafloor.

- Nicola Davis

Now researchers say they have completed the most comprehensive study of its kind, not only identifying the actions and small motions involved in different types of movements, but revealing that - like primates, rodents and fish - the cephalopods prefer to use particular limbs for certain tasks.