Cuttlefish are fascinating cephalopods that camouflage expertly using color and texture changes. With their distinctive cuttlebone and advanced vision, they are true ocean masters.
Cuttlefish
Many cuttlefish hatch already hunting, and they instinctively attack tiny shrimp silhouettes without any parents to teach them.
Young cuttlefish sometimes copy the colours of poisonous species, so predators think they taste dangerous and leave them alone.
Male cuttlefish can split their body pattern, flirting on one side while looking female on the other to fool rivals.
Some sneaky males even shrink their colours and act like females so they can slide past big macho males to reach a mate.
They see the world in polarized light, so they spot shiny fish scales and transparent prey that look almost invisible to us.
Their pupils form a strange W shape, which helps control bright tropical light and keeps contrast sharp in murky water.
Cuttlefish skin holds layers of tiny colour sacks and mirrors, turning their whole body into a high‑resolution screen.
They do not just vanish into rocks; sometimes they create moving stripes that hypnotise fish and herd them closer.
Despite the name, cuttlefish are not fish at all, but close cousins of octopus and squid with their own unique tricks.
The famous cuttlebone inside cuttlefish works like a tiny submarine tank, letting them fine‑tune buoyancy with trapped gas.
Beachcombers once ground dried cuttlebone into a gentle polishing powder used for cleaning silver and smoothing paper.
Long before printers, people used cuttlefish ink as a deep brown drawing pigment that artists still call sepia today.
One flamboyant cuttlefish crawls on the seafloor instead of swimming, flashing neon patterns that warn it may be toxic.
In labs, they remember where they caught the tastiest prey and return later, which hints at surprisingly complex memories.
Fossil records show ancient cuttlefish relatives swam the oceans with dinosaurs, carrying similar internal shells for support.
