Octopuses can taste with their arms
California two-spot octopuses react differently when touching prey (tasty morsels) than when they touch less-appetizing items (ordinary objects like a coffee mug), according to research published in 2020.
Octopus arms have chemotactile receptors, sensory cells that the researchers believe give the animals their impressive touch ability—a touch so sensitive that, in an octopus’s nervous system, it’s interpreted much like taste is to humans.
