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Octomoms may not have become the best role models for parenting in recent years.

But thankfully, a California octopus has shown that they aren't all cut from the same cloth.

Researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) have observed a deep-sea octopus brooding its eggs for four and one half years—longer than any other known animal.

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This female octopus was photographed in May 2007 clinging to a rocky wall in Monterey Canyon less than a month after she laid her eggs and began brooding them - and was still there over four years later

Throughout this time, the female kept the eggs clean and guarded them from predators - even though she gradually lost weight and her skin became loose and pale.

As the authors noted in their recent paper in the Public Library of Science (PLOS ONE), 'The trade-off within the reproductive strategy of deep-living octopods is between the mother's ability to endure a long brooding period and the competitiveness of her hatchlings.

'Graneledone boreopacifica produces hatchlings that are very highly developed, which gives them the advantage of a high potential for survival.'

This research suggests that, in addition to setting records for the longest brooding time of any animal, Graneledone boreopacifica may be one of the longest lived cephalopods (a group that includes octopuses, squids, and their relatives).

Most shallow-water octopuses and squids live just a year or two.

'The ultimate fate of a brooding female octopus is inevitably death,' the researchers wrote.

'But in this first example from the deep sea, brooding also confers an extension of adult life that greatly exceeds most projections of cephalopod longevity.'

Every few months for the last 25 years, a team of MBARI researchers led by Bruce Robison has performed surveys of deep-sea animals at a research site in the depths of Monterey Canyon that they call 'Midwater 1.'

The female octopus clinging to a rocky ledge just above the floor of the canyon, about 1,400 meters (4,600 feet) below the ocean surface.

The deep-sea octopus broods eggs for over four years? - onger than any known animal

She's gone: The last time the researchers saw the brooding octopus was in September 2011. When they returned one month later, they found that the female was gone. After counting the remnants of the egg capsules, the researchers estimated that the female octopus had been brooding about 160 eggs.

In May 2007, during one of these surveys, the researchers discovered a female octopus clinging to a rocky ledge just above the floor of the canyon, about 1,400 meters (4,600 feet) below the ocean surface.

The octopus, a species known as Graneledone boreopacifica, had not been in this location during their previous dive at this site in April.

Over the next four and one-half years, the researchers dove at this same site 18 times.

Each time, they found the same octopus, which they could identify by her distinctive scars, in the same place.

As the years passed, her translucent eggs grew larger and the researchers could see young octopuses developing inside.

Over the same period, the female gradually lost weight and her skin became loose and pale.

The researchers never saw the female leave her eggs or eat anything.

She did not even show interest in small crabs and shrimp that crawled or swam by, as long as they did not bother her eggs.

The last time the researchers saw the brooding octopus was in September 2011.

When they returned one month later, they found that the female was gone.

As the researchers wrote in a recent paper in the Public Library of Science (PLOS ONE), 'the rock face she had occupied held the tattered remnants of empty egg capsules.'

After counting the remnants of the egg capsules, the researchers estimated that the female octopus had been brooding about 160 eggs.

Because the young octopus spend so much time in their eggs, by the time they hatch they are fully capable of surviving on their own and hunting for small prey.

In fact, the newborns of G. boreopacifica are larger and better developed than the hatchlings of any other octopus or squid.