The Cuttlefish can be found in oceans throughout the world. It is a small to medium sized mollusca, the Cuttlefish is part of the Sepia family. Sepiidae is a family of cephalopods in the order Sepia. A Cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda, examples pf a Cephalopoda are squids and octopuses. The Cuttlefish have eight arms and two tentacles that are covered in denticulated (rough, tooth like) suckers, that they use to secure their prey.
The Cuttlefish hides its two long tentacles under their eight arms. The Cuttlefish tentacles can't always reach their prey so in an attempt to get closer the Cuttlefish has the ability to change its color at will, it is sometimes referred to as the chameleon of the sea. The Cuttlefish nervous system allows its cells to dilate changing its pigment and overall appearnce. This allows the Cuttlefish to use hypnosis almost to distract their prey while them move into a striking distance in which their two denticulated tentacles can latch onto the prey bringing it to its mouth.
|
The cuttlefish also has a beak that is similar to a parrots. This beak can be used to restrain prey and also as a defense mechanism. Different species of Cuttlefish have different beaks.
The Cuttlefish has one of the largest brain to body size ratios. The Cuttlefish's brain can handle multiple inputs from a variety of senses such as smell, sight, and sound. Some scientist say that the Cuttlefish can use visual clues to solve mazes.
The Cuttlefish has very unique eyes. The Cuttlefish is color blind but can see well in low light and polarized light (polarized light is a light in which its waves have vibrations that occur in a single plane). The Cuttlefish is able to reshape its lenses by moving its entire eye, unlike humans who reshape our entire lenses in order to focus on objects. The Cuttlefish's eyes are also very large in proportion to its body which helps increase the magnification of an image. The Cuttlefish also has a distinct "W" shaped pupil that helps regulate light intensity entering the eye.
This video covers from the Cuttlefishes eye to testing it brain power, very interesting recommend watching till the end.
The Cuttlefish has different fins from other fish they run from the bottom of the body up to the about the head. The Cuttlefish also has a mantle cavity which fills with water and is then pushed out of its siphon as a form of jet propulsion. The Cuttlefish's fin helps it to maneuver in almost any direction such as forwards, backwards, and even in circles. The positioning and movement of the fins also helps in mating, smaller males in certain species will mimic a female in order to sneak past other males and get to a female.
The Cuttlefish has three hearts, two that supply blood to its large gills and one pumping oxygenated blood to the rest of the body. The Cuttlefish heart has to pump more blood then other animals because hemocyaini because it carries less oxygen then hemoglobin.