It has long been known that octopuses are smarter than invertebrates (an animal that does not have a backbone, such as an arthropod, mollusk, annelid, coelenterate), and new research may have answered the question of why.

That is, these beings seem to have a specific molecular analogy with the human brain.

Both the human and octopus genomes contain a large number of "mobile genes" or transposons that can self-replicate and move around the genome.

Although not all transposons are active, they are considered to be the material that drives evolutionary processes.

Experts have discovered in a new study that transposons of the LINE family (long intertwined nuclear elements) are located in the part of the octopus brain that controls cognitive abilities, but it is interesting that we can find them in the same place in the human brain .

"I jumped out of a chair when I saw a very strong signal of the activity of this element under a microscope in the part of the lobby where the octopus has a center of learning and cognition, just like in the hippocampus in humans," said biologist Giovanna Ponte. from Stazione Zoologica in Italy.

Recent research has found that LINE transposons are carefully regulated in the human brain and are thought to be linked to learning and memory, in part because they are more active in the hippocampus, where learning processes are controlled, writes

After finding these genes in the same place in the brains of two species of octopus, the common octopus (octopus vulgaris) and the California octopus (octopus bimaculoides), experts believe they have found a key reason for the high intelligence of these marine creatures.

Although transposons are known to use molecular replication mechanisms, the study shows that this may be something more significant, i.e. that it has a direct bearing on the complexity of the nervous system.

"The discovery of an element of the LINE family, active in the brains of two octopus species, is very significant because it supports the idea that these elements have a specific function that goes beyond replication," said geneticist Remo Sanges of Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati in Italy. .

Moreover, scientists believe that we can see an example of convergent evolution - when similar traits develop independently in completely unrelated species, causing the same adaptation, which in this case is superior cognitive ability.

"The octopus brain is functionally analogous to many mammalian brain characteristics.

That is why the identified LINE element is very interesting for the study of the evolution of intelligence ", said the biologist Graziano Fiorito of Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn.