dumbo-octopus, originally uploaded by Boju.

Today Dapper Cadaver’s Monster Monday Blog dives down to the bottom of the sea for one of the strangest, and rarest creatures on earth- the Dumbo Octopus.

They live all over the world in depths of 12,000 feet and below. They’ve discovered new species of them as recently as 2007 and while most are 20cm and below, some grow to over 5 feet. If you’re in Sarasota, Florida, then I highly recommend visiting the Mote Marine Laboratory which is offering lectures and encounters with their favorite sea monsters, including the dancing pink elephant with the weird ear-wings, the dumbo Octopus.

Watching the Dumbo Octopus swim is like watching a bird crossed with a pac-man ghost. It flaps its wings instead of jets around like it’s blue water cousins. It also has unnervingly human eyes, complete with what appears to be pink eye lids, whites, and irises. Their familiar eye just adds to their oddness though, as there is nothing else familiar about their face, and you can’t figure out which end is the front.

Closer to the ground they move by spinning and fluttering their webbed arms like a pinwheel.

The males are armed with a tentacle-like hectocotylus, which is a word you really ought to know if you watch enough anime.

- Elisha Cook Jr. And Octopus by JSD ART, originally uploaded by Elisha Cook Jr..

This photo really brings out the kind of wry wisdom of it’s subject, who wears his head octopus like a wreath of laurel.

Photo by Elisha Cook Jr in the Dapper Cadaver Octopus on Yo Head group.

thales_ulufeke, originally uploaded by montyy0.

This is one of the most primal of all images, that of man rising from the gray sea with an octopus on his head. No wonder it has been created and recreated over and over again in every age of our octopus topped collective unconscious.

From Octopus On Yo Head photo group, created by Dapper Cadaver

Cthulhu’s Formal Portrait, originally uploaded by yellow_melusine.

This is an excellent example of early 1900’s Ocotpus on Yo Head Daguerreotypes. Typical of the time, both the subject and the octopus on his head are posed unsmiling, to suggest nobility.

From Octopus on Yo Head a photo group started by Dapper Cadaver

Octo-love, originally uploaded by Tasseomancy.

A moody atmospheric piece, composed in octopus-inky darkness. One is compelled to wonder what she’s contemplating, and why she has an octopus on her head.

from the Octopus on Yo Head group created by BJ Winslow

Beyond the Beyond, originally uploaded by Chephoto.

From Octopus on Yo Head