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takyon writes:

The "frilled giant Pacific octopus" is being recognized as a distinct species:

What scientists are now calling the "frilled giant Pacific octopus" has been right under our noses the whole time - mistaken for the giant Pacific octopus, Enteroctopus dofleini. It's just that we didn't have enough evidence for a separate species, until now.

It doesn't have a scientific name, and it hasn't been fully described yet, but the frilled giant Pacific octopus has been confirmed using genetics.

[...] [Researchers] Nate Hollenbeck and David Scheel from Alaska Pacific University set out looking for that visual confirmation - for an octopus that was similar to, but nevertheless morphologically different from, Enteroctopus dofleini. [...] [They] retrieved 21 octopuses [from shrimp traps] - a full seven of which could be visually identified as distinct from the giant Pacific octopus.

The new octopus was defined by a frill of merged papillae - raised fleshy bumps on its skin - running the length of its body and two white spots on its head, where the great pacific octopus only has one spot. They all also had one long, thin, major papillae over each eye, a trait that occurs only rarely in the giant Pacific octopus. Some also had three smaller raised papillae under the eyes, like eyelashes; compound major papillae over the eye; or long, branched, antler-like papillae over the eyes. All of the new octopuses had at least one of these traits; none of the giant Pacific octopuses did.

Body Patterns of the Frilled Giant Pacific Octopus, a New Species of Octopus from Prince William Sound, AK (DOI: 10.4003/006.035.0206) (DX)

Use of Swabs for Sampling Epithelial Cells for Molecular Genetics Analyses in Enteroctopus (DOI: 10.4003/006.035.0207) (DX)

Nuclear and mitochondrial markers reveal evidence for genetically segregated cryptic speciation in giant Pacific octopuses from Prince William Sound, Alaska (DOI: 10.1007/s10592-012-0392-4) (DX)

Original Submission