Octopuses move with a simple elegance, but they have no rhythm.
Each of an octipus’s eight arms is soft, flexible and muscular, and acts as if it has an infinite number of joints. The cephalopods are bilateral symmetric, which means their left and right sides are mirror images of each other. Most bilateral-symmetric animals face forward when they are moving.
But octopuses can crawl in any direction relative to their body orientation. They don’t have to turn their bodies to change direction; one of an octopus’s arms can simply push off of a surface and propel the animal any which way.
The scientists also found that the octopus moves by shortening and elongating its arms, which creates a pushing thrust. The animal does not move by bending or pulling its arms, which simplifies matters for the creature.