Fantastic post! I love the mix of fact and fiction here, and two of my favorites from each: octopi and scifi. The autonomy of their arms is fascinating, and—you're right—a great inspiration for creating alien races. Even if not used as a direct influence, it at least shows the amazing things that actually exist in creatures on our own planet, encouraging a writer to not shy away from very out of the box concepts. Like the movie Arrival, which you mentioned in another comment. After seeing that movie I've been meaning to read the short story it was based off of. Thanks for the reminder.
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I need to read that short story too!
"Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang
For those interested.