My friend Marion Nixon, who has died aged 95, was well known to generations of research scientists for her ingenious work in clarifying much of what we know about octopuses, including how they feed and digest their food.
Having received her PhD from University College London in 1968 for her work on octopuses, Marion went on to publish around 70 papers and book chapters on octopuses and squids, both living and fossil. For about 30 years she also worked as a research assistant to John Z Young, the former head of the UCL department of anatomy, helping him to publish a large number of academic papers and textbooks.
