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I thought it was octopi.
Hell, I'd even settle for octopodes.
But octopuses? That's too vaguely vulgar for my taste.
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Since we speak English,
octopuses is the only acceptable plural.
Octopi is misconceived, based on the assumption that
octōpūs is a second declension Latin noun, which it is not.
Octopodes is pedantic.
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Anyway, on topic, has anyone figured a rough evolutionary time frame yet? I mean, I can't imagine their legs going vestigial rapidly, but the whole oddworld universe just seems so...young to me. It's hard to fathom such awkward creatures being around for very long.
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Strictly speaking, such awkward creatures would not exist for any amount of time at all, since such evolutionary pathways are roadblocked by severe selection pressures. There seems to be a peculiar aspect of Oddworldian evolution that influences its course towards literal realisations of human metaphors, most probably caused by the fact that it is a fictional world design by humans to whom establishing evolutionarily plausible life forms was merely a secondary objective.
As for time, the age of Oddworld could not possibly be established without either an official statement, which we lack, or a geological study, which would not be straightforward because (for starters) a world that size that can achieve an Earth like state clearly follows no known geological laws. Also it is fictional, which is a significant impediment to genuine scientific endeavour.