Carolyn Eastwood, age 11, of Alberta, Va., for her question:

HOW MANY KINDS OF OCTOPUSES ARE THERE?

Would you believe there are more than 50 different kinds of octopuses on earth? Well, it's true. And most of them grow no larger than the size of a man's fist.

The largest octopus you'll ever see may measure 28 feet from one tentacle tip to another. You may find him in the China or Mediterranean seas, along the coasts of Hawaii or North America or in the West Indies.

Mother octopus lays a cluster of as many as 180,000 nearly transparent eggs. They attach themselves to rocks and many hatch in about two months. Not too many of them make it all the way to adulthood.

Theoctopus has two eyes and three hearts. He also has the most highly developed brain of all animals that are without backbones.