For Smile Day, a common octopus

© blickwinkel/Alam

Let us sea your smile. Smile?

For World Smile Day, we bring you one animal that can’t really smile, at least not in a way that humans recognise. The common octopus, seen in this photo, has a mouth with a beak-like exterior which it uses to crack the shells of the crabs and shellfish it eats. That opening you can see in this photo, below the octopus’ eye, is an aperture, part of its breathing mechanism. Still, if you let your imagination run with it, the octopus does look like he just heard a really good joke. And really, isn’t a ‘grinning’ octopus enough to make you feel good on World Smile Day?