MBL March Madness: Flamboyant Cuttlefish

Credit: Silke Baron via CC license
march madness "baseball card" for flamboyant cuttlefish
Cartoon: Emily Greenhalgh, MBL

Flamboyant cuttlefish (Metasepia pfefferi) are brilliantly colorful cephalopods from the Indo-Pacific region and can be found off the northern coast of Australia, Southern New Guinea, and various islands of the Philippines. The flamboyant cuttlefish has some of the best camouflage in the animal kingdom. Recent research from the MBL found that camouflage is its primary mode of defense and it’s what the cuttlefish looks like most of the time. But when a predator or threatening object (such as a SCUBA diver) comes too close, the cuttlefish will flash its famous flamboyant display—switching from camouflage to flamboyant in as quickly as 700 milliseconds.The vibrant colors (white, yellow, red, and brown) of the flamboyant display are combined with apparent “waves” of dark brown color that produce a dazzling and dizzying kaleidoscope of motion, color, and patterning. Fast neural control of many thousands of chromatophore organs in the skin enable this unique signaling capability – all turned on or off in less than a second and changed depending on the behavioral context of the courtship, or in the case of defense, the fish predators that discover them.

Fun Facts:

  • Males are typically only half the size of full-grown females.Males will try and court the females by turning their body ghostly white except for pink arm tips. He then vibrates, and bobs back and forth in front of the female until she accepts his display.
  • Flamboyant cuttlefish can capture prey up to 2-3 body lengths away using two long, elastic feeding tentacles.The tentacles are transparent, so unsuspecting prey can’t see what's coming.
  • Females lay transparent eggs and full embryonic development can be observed with the naked eye. When fully developed, a hatchling will emerge as a tiny version of its parents.
March Madness Colorful Critters division

Colorful Critters

Looks aren’t everything, but in this division they might be. These organisms use bright colors for everything from attracting a mate to warning off predators. Organisms including cephalopods (octopus, cuttlefish, and squid) can use adaptive camouflage—showing off bright colors one moment and blending into their surroundings at the next. Researchers at the 91鶹 study the biological processes behind some of nature’s most colorful critters.

Meet the Organisms

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