Can you guess what they were?
Whenever a storm passes through Tampa Bay, Florida, Brianna Varner makes her way to Pass-a-Grille beach. After storms, it’s common to find stranded marine animals along the shore, and Varner is always ready to help return them safely to the water.
On one such visit, Varner spotted an open pen shell resting on the sand. Curious, she gently flipped it over — and was amazed to discover a cluster of tiny eggs tucked inside.
“At first, I thought they were snail eggs,” Varner told The Dodo. “But when I touched them, I realized they were way more gelatinous than any snail eggs I’ve ever seen.”
She described the eggs as soft, squishy bubbles, and as she looked closer, she saw something extraordinary: tiny embryos wriggling inside the eggs.
“I noticed little eyeballs,” Varner said. “And if you looked really closely, you could see the tentacles.”
Realizing the eggs belonged to a squid—or so she thought—Varner carefully returned the shell to the water to keep the embryos from drying out.
Later that day, Varner found a beached pygmy octopus near where she’d discovered the eggs. Although she usually advises against handling wild animals, she felt compelled to save the tiny creature and gently placed her back in the water. In protest, the octopus bit her, but Varner quickly recovered.
Her exploration didn’t end there. Varner soon discovered another pygmy octopus, curled protectively inside a shell — guarding a cluster of bubble-like eggs.
“That’s when I connected it,” Varner said. “Oh my God, those are octopus eggs. And that was a mom who had gotten separated from her brood. So, of course, she’s going to bite the heck out of me.”
Mama octopuses are fiercely protective of their eggs, defending them at all costs. Despite the bite, Varner felt honored to assist the octopus and her precious eggs.
“To think about how fiercely she defends her babies — even such a small creature can be so powerful,” Varner said. “It was just really cool.”
Over the following weeks, Varner returned daily to the beach, observing and caring for the octopuses and their eggs. She watched the embryos grow through every stage — and eventually, witnessed some hatch.
“The eggs are pretty thin,” Varner explained. “You can really see everything happening inside. It was incredible to watch the whole little octopus forming in there.”