It doesn't take a backbone to be a genius — or a master of the comedic arts, apparently.
An octopus has been captured on film exhibiting one of the most remarkable (and amusing) examples of tool usage in the animal kingdom. Footage shows the eight-limbed animal literally walking along the ocean floor carrying two halves of a broken coconut shell beneath his arms, seemingly without rhyme or reason.
But this tentacled one knows exactly what he's doing.
As it turns out, some octopuses, like this one, possess the foresight to actually pack along coconut shells to use as protective shelters when exploring areas without adequate places to hide.
Scientists say this behavior is the first evidence of tool use by an octopus, putting the aquatic animals in a league with a small number of other animals known to do the same.
Interestingly, this incredible finding was nearly lost to science within moments after being discovered. Julian Finn, a researcher from the Victoria Museum in Australia, who was among the first scientists to have witnessed this behavior first hand, was so impressed by what he observed — it nearly killed him.
"I almost drowned laughing when I saw this the first time," Finn told the BBC. "I could tell it was going to do something, but I didn't expect this — I didn't expect it would pick up the shell and run away with it."
Take a deep breath and watch footage of the octopus in its entirety below:
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