The tank appeared empty, save for a speckled brown cluster of coral. “Is there something in there?”

“Watch.” Lara reached into a plastic bucket with a pair of tongs, fishing out a live crab. Unbolting the plastic top of the tank, she dropped the squirming crustacean into the water.

As if by magic, the sides of the cluster of coral bloomed into a pair of octopi, each creature losing its brown skin pattern to become translucent pink.

“Wow, that’s some camouflage.”

“This is Oscar and Sophia. They’re both members of the species Megaleledone setebos—that’s Latin for—”

“‘The ones that never left home,’” I said, attempting to impress her. “So, where is home?”

“Right here, in the South Pole. All modern deep-sea octopuses trace their origins to a single species of Antarctic cephalopod that inhabited these very waters about thirty-three million years ago.”

“How did one species evolve into so many different species so quickly?”

“Adaptation. When Antarctica froze over, most of the cephalopods spread into other ocean realms, their physiology evolving to adapt to their new environments. Each change led to new species of octopus. For instance, Oscar and Sophia were born in the dark waters of the deep, their physiological adaptation was to phase out their ink sacs.”

“Is the light bothering them? They look like they’re squinting.”

Lara laughed. “Those aren’t eyes, they’re just skin folds. Their eyes are actually off to the sides.”

“They have your smile.”

“That’s not a mouth, it’s just a common color pattern.”

“Why is there a padlock on the top of their tank? Are you afraid someone might steal them?”

“Hardly. These guys are escape artists; they can squeeze their bodies through a hole the size of your fist. Cephalopods are also extremely smart. Watch this.”

Using the tongs, she removed another live crab from the bucket, placing it in a jar of salt water. The two octopi appeared excited; they were clearly watching Lara as she screwed on the jar lid tightly. When she reached for another jar and crab, I began to feel guilty.

Lara released both sealed containers of live bait into the tank and the two cephalopods immediately divided the bounty, each octopus wasting no time in attempting to remove the lid of its respective jar. Within seconds, the translucent pink creatures had splayed themselves atop their lids, engaging the powerful suckers of their eight tentacles, twisting off the sealed jar top.

“Pretty clever,” I said, duly impressed. “Is there an IQ test you can administer to an octopus?”