Two Australian Scientists Filmed Veined Octopus Carrying Coconut Shells for Shelter (VIDEO)

Australian scientists, Julian Finn and Mark Norman, have discovered an octopus in Indonesia that collects coconut shells for shelter. This behavior is considered unusually sophisticated and researchers believe it is the first evidence of tool used in an invertebrate animal.

The veined octopuses, scientifically known as Amphioctopus marginatus, were filmed by scientists filmed, selecting halved coconut shells from the sea floor, emptying them out, carrying them under their bodies up to 65 feet and assembling two shells together to make a spherical hiding spot.

The two scientists from the Museum Victoria in Melbourne observed the odd activity in four of the creatures during a series of dive trips to North Sulawesi and Bali in Indonesia between 1998 and 2008. Their findings were published Tuesday in the journal Current Biology.

While octopuses often use foreign objects as shelter, it seems that the veined octopus went a step further by preparing the shells, carrying them long distances and reassembling them as shelter elsewhere.