Octopuses use their arms to taste and hunt
Octopuses and squids use their suckers to taste surfaces and grapple with their prey simultaneously. Two studies published in Nature describe how these animals 'taste by touching' and how evolution has equipped them with the perfect sensory ability for their lifestyles. The receptors that stud the animals' suckers transmit information that enables the creature to taste chemicals on a surface independently from those floating in the water. Molecular biologists have found that the octopus receptors tend to bind to 'greasy' molecules that don't dissolve in water, suggesting that they are optimized for detecting chemicals on surfaces such as a fish's skin, the sea floor, or the octopus's own eggs.