The Insane Biology of: The Cuttlefish

Images Courtesy of Getty Images

Thanks to our Patreon Supporters:
Eric Ypsilantis
Robert Thompson
Keith Skipper

Credits:
Narrator: Stephanie Sammann
Writer: Lorraine Boissoneault
Illustrator: Jacek Ambrożewski

REFERENCES
[6] The Secret Lives of Color, Kassia St. Clair

[kated]

Saw one while snorkeling in Spain once! Brave little bugger faced me and lifted two tiny tentacles above its head in an attempt to ''look bigger'' and intimidate me.
It was so fricking goofy and adorable!

[joshuazeeman]

My favorite part about cuttlefish is that their pigmentation changes while they sleep and will sometimes just explode with brilliant displays of color without any outside stimulus. We may never know why this happens but it really seems like some reflection of their dreams.

[allisonbergh]

Cuttlefish have also demonstrated the ability to pass the Stanford marshmallow test - deferring gratification in order to obtain a larger reward. Watching footage of the tests is fascinating, as the cuttlefish display a lot of the same self-distraction techniques used by human toddlers taking similar tests.

[jamesbarisitz]

Thank you for your work bringing the abilities of these fascinating creatures to the YouTube audience! I grew up watching Jaques Cousteau specials on tv, and your docs are so enlightening. 😊

[SelkieTears]

the only time i've ever snorkelled in my life as a little kid, I had the pleasuere of meeting a little cuttlefish

i was so surprised I just stopped for a second and stared and the little guy stared back before shooting away. I've never felt like I've been regarded by an animal like that before - it really felt like it was actually considering me before deciding I wasn't anything interesting and going on its way. I love cuttlefish so much, my favourite cephalopod for sure 😊

[BoodooYou]

Here in Australia I find “cuttle bones” on the beach all the time. Birds love them. If you tie a bone up in their aviary, they’ll use it to sharpen their beaks and as a calcium supplement. You can buy them in pet stores too. I assume it’s the same in the USA?

[benjaminanderson]

Imagine being male and hanging out with a woman and her husband, and wearing drag on the half of your body facing the husband and normal clothes on the other half, and convincing the man you're a woman who wants to sleep with him, while simultaneously sleeping with his wife. Sounds like a good sitcom episode

[silverXnoise]

What a coincidence, my elderly father also uses “ambling” to get around.




He also uses flashing colors to mesmerize his victims, but that’s another story.

[alinatried]

This was such a wonderful episode, i absolutely love watching these videos while i draw. better than any netflix documentary i've seen, and the lady's voice is so soothing and charming. thank you so much for making this fantastic quality content available to us for free <3

[vice.nor.virtue]

I am so happy that you covered the Cuttlefish. As much as I think of Octopusses as aliens, when I look at a Cuttlefish just **exist** I'm like, what fricking asteroid did you arrive on? The way it's mouth is positioned behind the little arms is so peculiar that one can't even tell where the heck the mouth is or whether they're looking at it from the front or the back even after many times of looking at this creature. Everyone wonders what sci-fi creatures from other worlds would look like and I'm literally here going "Duide. Have you even SEEN The insane Biology of the cuttlefish?? It makes Avatar look like a documentary about goats, horses and pigeons".

[spindoctor]

I saw a cuttlefish video showing one individual who had a potential mate on one side of him and a rival on the other. He was simultaneously flashing the mating pattern to the female and the aggressive warning pattern to the other male. The control is amazing.

[TrabberShir]

11:35 The chromatic aberration would not be limited to RGB, that would allow distinguishing a whole lot of spectral colors within the range their photoreceptors are sensitive to, the limiting factor for a cuttlefish is probably processing power if that is how they are detecting color. RGB wouldn't even be the easiest/most likely if their vision is based on this and only processing three colors.

[nsmith]

I scuba'd through a curtain of these amazing creatures, separating me from my family in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. They radiated a color as though they were communicating. It was insane and I was so young that it was almost unbelievable. I had to ignore the fact they created a wall and pierced through gently and the curtain opened. I knew the colors were communicating something tool.

[ArchettosDrinkingBuddy]

I once had an encounter with squids while swimming in a reef near us, there was an anchored raft at the edge of a drop off where I often rest and I saw a group of squids at the edge, lined up horizontally with a relative distance with each other, as if they were forming up a defensive line.

Don't know what they were up to, but seeing that was enough to mesmerize me, Cephalopods are such amazing creatures.

[edibleghost]

I just found your channel today and the wonderful thing about you is that not only do you solve these mysteries but you show the mystery in its entirety first.

[frankstonsafranek]

Thank you for this video. As always, it was very informative and interesting and very enjoyable to watch. I was lucky enough to dive with the giant cuttlefish during spawning time in South Australia in July. They are truly magnificent creatures.

[dmdcykey]

This is easily the most fascinating animal of any on earth for me. What a majestic creature.

[abcde_fz]

Only halfway through, and I can say without fear of contradiction that this is the _best_ short subject film on Cuttlefish I've ever seen!!! Absolutely _packed_ with interesting and informative facts, and solid gold in it's graphic data representation choices.
Good show!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂

[abhidey]

What an unexpectedly incredible and delightful cephalopod! Cell to Singularity is also a very relaxing way to pass time :)

[realfishscience]

Literally love these videos so fucking much dude you have no idea how much time I would have spent looking for good research papers to quote (well, I guess the same/less than you but anyway) and it’s all so well squished together! Can’t wait for the next upload!