Dance of Dumbo the Octopus

There's a new Dumbo dancing around these days, and it's not an elephant.

Amazing underwater footage shows the fluid dance of Dumbo the octopus as it swims though the water.

The nickname Dumbo was given to the deep-sea creature because of its large ear-like fins. These fins and webbed arms help Dumbo glide through the water.

Dumbo is an octopod, Grimpoteuthis bathynectes, which has a "head" that is actually a muscular bag that holds all the body organs and gills. Researchers hope to solve many octopod mysteries , such as how well their bulging eyes can see and why they have organs on their arms that can sense smell.

The adorable creature  was filmed in September 2005 by members of the VISIONS 2005 expedition, a research cruise to the underwater volcanoes of the northeast Pacific Ocean.

A high-definition video camera was strapped to an underwater robot, which was tethered to the research ship. The footage was taken 200 miles (322 kilometers) off the Oregon coast and 6,600 feet (2,000 meters) underwater.

This patch of the Pacific is famous for vast hydrothermal vent fields, or hot springs, that are connected to the underwater volcanoes of the Juan de Fuca Ridge, a tectonically active part of the sea floor.