California two-spot octopus
| California two-spot octopus | |
|---|---|
| At Heal the Bay Aquarium | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Cephalopoda |
| Order: | Octopoda |
| Family: | Octopodidae |
| Genus: | Octopus |
| Species: | O. bimaculoides |
| Binomial name | |
| Octopus bimaculoides Pickford & McConnaughey, 1949 | |
The California two-spot octopus (Octopus bimaculoides), often simply called a "bimac", is an octopus species native to many parts of the Pacific Ocean including the coast of California. One can identify the species by the circular blue eyespots on each side of its head. Bimacs usually live to be about two years old. They are closely related to Verrill's two-spot octopus (Octopus bimaculatus). In 2015, O. bimaculoides became the first octopus to have a fully sequenced genome.