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Whole-body 3D histology reveals neural architecture in a hatchling octopus.

Understanding how nervous systems mediate responses to sensation requires whole-body maps of periphery‑to‑brain connections. Octopuses exemplify this challenge; control is distributed across eight arms and hundreds of suckers, yet long-range wiring remains elusive due to limitations in microscopy. We built a centimeter‑field micro‑CT detector and reconstructed an intact hatchling octopus, achieving micrometer‑scale delineation of all major organ systems. This whole‑body context revealed (i) continuous chemotactile pathways from suckers to brain, and (ii) subdivisions of the nerve ring connecting neighboring arms. We share the labeled volume in an open interactive web interface as a reusable “digital specimen” for collaborative mapping, measurement, discovery and reuse. This resource advances digital organismal biology: open, navigable whole‑organism datasets that preserve native architecture and guide models linking structure to physiology, behavior, and environment.

3D imaging, microanatomy, Octopus, chemosensing, sucker neurocircuitry, wide‑field microCT, 3D histology, long‑range neurocircuitry, whole‑organism phenotyping, microanatomical phenotyping.

Andrew Sugarman^1,2,3,*, Daniel Vanselow^1,*, David Northover^1,2, Stephen L. Senft⁴, Carolyn Zaino¹, Maksim A. Yakovlev¹, Jessica Christ¹, Justin D. Silverman^2,5,6,7,8, Mee S. Ngu¹, Khai C. Ang¹, Steve Wang⁹, Wen‑Sung Chung¹⁰, Patrick La Riviere¹¹, Roger T. Hanlon^4,**, Keith C. Cheng^1,2,8,12,**.

*Authors contributed equally; **Co‑corresponding authors.

1. Department of Pathology, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA; The Jake Gittlen Laboratories for Cancer Research, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA
2. Program in Bioinformatics and Genomics, Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, USA
3. Medical Scientist Training Program, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA
4. The Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, 02543, USA
5. College of Information Sciences and Technology, Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, USA
6. Department of Statistics, Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, USA
7. Department of Medicine, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA
8. Institute for Computational and Data Science, Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, USA
9. Mobile Imaging Innovations, Inc., Palatine, Illinois, USA
10. School of the Environment, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
11. Department of Radiology, The University of Chicago, USA
12. Molecular & Precision Medicine Program, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA