Are Octopuses Actually Aliens?

We love this headline.

Octopuses are aliens. That’s the claim being made by a team of 33 researchers published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

They are not referring to aliens in a metaphorical sense, but literal aliens from outer space.

Since the paper was released on Sunday, a trickle of news coverage has turned into a torrent, with increasingly alarming headlines about octopuses and their extra-terrestrial origins. 

It will not come as a surprise to many to learn that these claims have been roundly mocked by the scientific community, who have branded the paper – published in Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology – as ridiculous and unscientific.

Specifically, the researchers propose the idea that alien viruses crashed to Earth in a meteor, infected a population of primitive squid and caused them to evolve into octopuses. 

Another theory they suggest is that fertilised squid or octopus eggs were delivered to Earth by a meteor.

Octopuses are weird. They are molluscs, meaning they are closely related to snails, and yet they are incredibly intelligent. 

On top of their large brains and sophisticated nervous systems, the authors of the new paper list camera-like eyes, flexible bodies and ability to camouflage themselves by changing colour and shape as evidence of their extra-terrestrial origins.

So suddenly did these features appear in the octopus family tree that “it is plausible then to suggest they seem to be borrowed from a far distant ‘future’ in terms of terrestrial evolution, or more realistically from the cosmos at large,” the authors write. 

“Such an extraterrestrial origin as an explanation of emergence of course runs counter to the prevailing dominant paradigm,” they continue. This is a strong contender for understatement of the century.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/octopus-aliens-scientists-theory-meteors-space-earth-cambrian-explosion-a8358631.html?amp

So you say that octopuses have features that formed suddenly? 

Hmmmm?....Here's another idea....maybe God made them exactly the way they are?  Maybe they didn't evolve from snails?  Maybe they didn't come to earth on a meteor?  Maybe aliens didn't bring them?  Maybe God wanted to create an intelligent animal that lives under the sea and has numerous legs and suction cup for hands....because HE CAN!