Octopuses could be ‘aliens from outer space,’ barmy scientific paper claims

A scientific theory has claimed that octopuses could actually be alien creatures that evolved on another planet.

For years, scientists have discussed the possibility that the basic seeds of life could have been brought to Earth by a passing comet, but a groundbreaking new theory suggests that far larger forms of life could have arrived from outer space.

The bizarre theory was put forward in a paper entitled Cause of Cambrian Explosion – Terrestrial or Cosmic? published in scientific journal Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology.

A team led by Australian molecular immunologist Edward J. Steele raises the possibility that octopuses and squid could have been blown into space by volcanic eruptions or meteor impacts before travelling billions of miles in a kind of suspended animation.

“The possibility that cryopreserved squid and/or octopus eggs, arrived in icy bolides several hundred million years ago should not be discounted,” the paper says, noting that the octopus and its relatives have biological features that appear to suggest “some type of pre-existence.”

The scientists say “some genetic features from recent data in the octopus and other cephalopods provide challenging examples to conventional evolutionary thinking”.

The paper also touches on the possibility that life may have evolved on Mars before some massive planetary disaster turned the Red Planet into a chilling wasteland.

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Most of the paper is concerned with the relatively uncontroversial theory of panspermia – the idea that micro-organisms drift from star to star in the tails of comets.

The scientists write: “The evidence has been interpreted to show it is consistent with the plausible conclusion that these micro-organism-like entities are incoming to Earth from space, possibly transported by small comets."

However then it moves into more controversial territory, asking if tardigrades – the tiny “water bears” that are found everywhere on Earth from the highest mountains to the ocean deeps – could have arrived from outer space.

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The eight-legged half-millimetre long creatures are known to be immune to doses of radiation that would kill any other form of life and able to go without food and water for decades at a time.

“The catalogue of 'living' space-hardy properties is entirely consistent with 'evolutionary natural selective events' acting on tardigrades evolving in extra-terrestrial space environments,” Steele and his colleagues write.

The paper goes on to say that the genetic history of the octopus is “highly inconsistent and confusing” and could point to an extraterrestrial origin.

The study has been peer-reviewed by Keith Baverstock, a medical researcher with the University of Eastern Finland. His review stated that there is a lot of evidence that makes the thesis plausible.

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