I actually found this while researching octopus merge (mostly looking for background info - I'm working on a tool that traverses and replicates modified git repositories), and I realized that it was actually pretty interesting.

Yeah it's quite funny given the popularity of github how few people know about octopus merges. I only know about them because I built my own git graph GUI. I was about to hard code in two parents and then wondered if there could be more.

Yet Github never creates octopus merges.

The mascot was from a stock illustration GitHub used on their 404 page iirc. It grew too popular and GitHub licensed it soon for exclusive use.