UK Sea Life Centre has a Hexapus

London, Mar.4 : The Blackpool Sea Life Centre in north-west England has a Hexapus or, a "six-legged octopus".

Henry the Hexapus - as he has been christened by his keepers - is the result of a genetic defect, rather than an accident, and he is believed to be the first of his six-legged kind known to humanity.

"We've scoured the Internet and talked to lots of other aquariums and no one has ever heard of another case of a [hexapus]," The Telegraph quoted the Centre's displays supervisor Carey Duckhouse, as saying.

Found two weeks ago in a lobster-pot off the coast of north Wales, Henry was one of eight "lesser octopuses" that Sea Life took delivery of from the Anglesey Sea Zoo.

The staff at Sea Life took some time to notice Henry's deficiency in the limb department.

The attention-starved mollusc had to fasten himself to the glass of his tank before anyone realised his limb deficiency.

Henry is shortly to star alongside an actual eight-legged octopus in a new exhibition at the Blackpool centre, entitled "Suckers".

ANI