One octopus guarded her eggs for four and a half years without eating again
In 2007, researchers using a remote submersible repeatedly found the same deep-sea octopus, a Graneledone boreopacifica, clinging to a rock ledge off California guarding a clutch of eggs. She stayed there without feeding once for 53 months, the longest incubation period ever recorded in any animal, before the eggs finally hatched and she died shortly after. Many octopus species die right after their eggs hatch; this one simply holds the record for how long that final vigil can last.