Article body copy The crinkly form of a small, dried octopus lay on a desk in Washington, DC, 170 years ago. The curious cephalopod, collected more than 7,000 kilometers away in Brazil, was one of thousands of creatures obtained by researchers on the United States South Seas Exploring Expedition, which took explorers, navy men, merchants, and scientists on an epic voyage around the Pacific Ocean. The project took years, but preserved specimens—including a few small-headed red octopuses with white, leopard-like spots that had been picked up from a fish market in Rio de Janeiro, and from local fishers—eventually wound up with experts, such as American naturalist Augustus Addison Gould, for scientific analysis.