What I love about cuttlefish is that no two shots of them are ever the same--they're so mercurial. They're considered to be among the most intelligent of invertebrates, and the Romans used their ink as a pigment, calling it sepia (guess what color the ink is).
Perhaps you've heard of cuttlebones, especially if you give them to your birds as a calcium source. Those cuttlebones provide the internal structure for the cuttlefish. They're made of porous argonite, and the mollusks manipulate the gas-to-liquid ratio within the bone's chambers to control their buoyancy.
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Ever wonder how they change their appearance so well? They've got 200 specialized pigment cells per square millimeter. Those cells are a marvel of biological engineering, as are their eyes, which are among the most advanced on the planet. And their blood isn't red, it's blue-green. So much to say about the cuttlefish, and yet they only live for about two years.
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posted by Raging Wombat at 12:45 PM on Nov 5, 2009
11 Comments
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November 12, 2009
my favorite animal! but i've never seen them irl = sadness v_v
November 12, 2009
YAY!
November 13, 2009
The first one looks like a lil' baby Cthulhu! Aw!
November 13, 2009
Awww... Why so down in the mouth Baby Cthulu? That bastard Shoggoth bullying you again?
November 16, 2009
One of my favorite creatures. I've had the opportunity to see one for myself:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/87959461@N00/3368112800/sizes/o/
This guy hung out at the front of the tank, shimmering... You could see the chromatophores narrowing and widening, if you looked closely at him.
Hardly an ugly, though.. I think they're splendidly beautiful creatures.
November 17, 2009
Absolutely LOVE cuttlefish! Watched a pbs nature show on them. They are amazing creatures.
November 18, 2009
Another nice picture, great taken.
November 19, 2009
I have to agree with Mike!
That sexy lady is not Ugly!
November 23, 2009
I think I am pretty :)
December 04, 2009
yes, anonymous, you are very very pretty (:
December 04, 2009