"The discovery of an element of the LINE family, active in the brain of the two octopuses species, is very significant because it adds support to the idea that these elements have a specific function that goes beyond copy-and-paste," says computational genomicist Remo Sanges from the Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati research institute in Italy.

What's more, the researchers think that we could be looking at an example of convergent evolution: when similar traits develop independently in completely unrelated species, and provide the same adaptation, which in this case is superior cognitive abilities.

Scientists continue to find evolutionary tricks and neurological responses that make octopuses stand out amongst invertebrates, and which make them more like mammals in terms of the structure and the activity of the brain.