Experts Propose That Octopuses Are Extraterrestrials Delivered To Earth Via Icy Cosmic Debris

by Steven Lerner; Tech Times

Among all creatures on Earth, octopuses stand out as some of the most extraordinary. A recent paper puts forward the bold claim that these animals may actually have extraterrestrial origins.

What Has Led 33 Researchers To Believe Octopuses Are Extraterrestrials?

The hypothesis that octopuses came from beyond our planet was put forward by a team of 33 researchers drawn from institutions across the globe. Pointing to the remarkable cognitive abilities of the octopus, these scientists argue that the creature represents one of many organisms that arrived here from cosmic material.

Their findings were released on March 13, through the journal Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology. It gained significant media coverage in May.

The team concentrated their analysis on the collection of genes found in octopuses.

"In our view, is that the new genes are likely new extraterrestrial imports to Earth — most plausibly as an already coherent group of functioning genes within (say) cryopreserved and matrix protected fertilized Octopus eggs," the researchers wrote.

If Octopuses Originated In Space, What Path Brought Them To Our Planet?

According to the paper, frozen eggs along with embryos and seeds journeyed to Earth aboard icy bodies drifting through space. Upon reaching our planet hundreds of millions of years in the past, these specimens reportedly developed into living organisms.

This notion falls under the framework of panspermia — a hypothesis that has sparked debate among researchers since the 1970s. Panspermia holds that life-bearing material traveled aboard space rocks before eventually reaching Earth, where environmental conditions allowed such organisms to flourish. Supporters of this idea point to the abrupt emergence of novel life forms preserved in fossils.

The team wrote: "It takes little imagination to consider that the pre-Cambrian mass extinction event(s) was correlated with the impact of a giant life-bearing comet (or comets), and the subsequent seeding of Earth with new cosmic-derived cellular organisms and viral genes."

Mainstream Researchers Condemn The Hypothesis

The reason the hypothesis has gained so much media attention is that other experts have publicly rejected it as unfounded.

"So this article is useful, calling for attention, and it is worth thinking about," Karin Moelling, a molecular geneticist, commented. "Yet the main statement about viruses, microbes and even animals which came to us from space, cannot be taken seriously."

Several factors drive the scientific community's rejection of the entire hypothesis. To begin with, no meteorite recovered on our planet has been found to contain genetic material. Moreover, octopus genes align seamlessly with the genomic makeup of terrestrial life. Regarding the sudden appearance of new organisms preserved in fossils, most researchers favor more conventional explanations over alien origins.

The published paper itself contains no new experimental data. Rather, the authors have simply cited their own previous publications.