On Aug. 12, 2015, the Cephalopod Sequencing Consortium announced the first-ever sequencing of the entire octopus genome. Researchers discovered unusual features that shed light on octopus evolution and biology, and set the stage for future studies on complex nervous system development.

The work was conducted by teams from the University of Chicago, University of California Berkeley and the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology as part of the Cephalopod Sequencing Consortium. Published in Nature, the research revealed striking differences between the genome of the octopus and other invertebrates.