Paul Is Dead

Photo from Creative Commons. Some rights reserved.

Today the world mourns the loss of its most sagacious cephalopod: Paul the Octopus, the mollusk famous for successfully predicting the outcome of World Cup games, was found dead this morning in his tank at the Sea Life Aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany.

Though Paul did receive some death threats during the height of World Cup fervor, no foul play is suspected: the average common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) survives only 1-2 years in the wild, and Paul was a venerable 2.5 when he passed away.  Paul is remembered in publications all around the world, in a storm on Twitter, and by pet psychic Catherine Ferguson, as featured on Newsweek.