Did you read the amazing story about the giant Pacific octopus that attacked an underwater submarine recently? The story was posted a few weeks ago. If you haven’t read it, check it out here. But today we have another crazy story about an octopus. But this time the octopus was a miniature one—about the size of a tennis ball! Yikes! What has this pint-sized, eight-armed sea creature been up to? No less than discovering treasure in a sunken shipwreck off the coast of Korea (a small country near China). When fishermen caught the tiny octopus, they found that it had been trying to hide, but not behind a rock or seaweed. Nope, the little critter was trying to hide behind a dinner plate! It was stuck to its tentacles when the fisher folk brought it out of the water. Strange but absolutely true!

So where did this little sea-going creature find a dinner plate in the murky depths of the Pacific Ocean? Well, archaeologists (scientists that study objects and buildings made by ancient humans) were alerted and brought to the scene. They dove in the area where the octopus was caught and found a 7.7 meter (25 foot) sunken ship filled with over 500 pieces of ancient pottery. The pottery was in amazing shape. Scientists think it may be up to one thousand years old!  Even though this seems ancient, the sunken ship is a relatively recent one as far as shipwrecks go. The oldest shipwreck in the world sank to the bottom of the sea near Turkey over 3300 years ago!

It looks like Korea really has an octopus to thank for this unique find. Unfortunately for the unlucky fellow, the only thanks he got was a trip to an Asian supermarket for sushi! Now that is a raw deal for an archaeological celebrity!