About Common cuttlefish are the largest found in UK seas and a fierce predator. They make light work of crabs, fish and even small cuttlefish! They live in water up to metres deep but come to shallow waters to breed in spring.
Cuttlefish usually live for two years and die after they have bred. How to identify Cuttlefish are a chunky squid-like creature with a well-developed head, large eyes and mouths with beak-like jaws. They have a fin that runs around their body, eight 'arms' with suckers plus two tentacles around the mouth.
Cuttlefish are extremely variable in colour, but are usually blackish-brown, mottled or striped. The cuttlebones found washed ashore are white, chalky and oval-shaped with thin harder 'wings' at one end. Distribution Found around all coasts of the UK, more common on south and west coasts. Habitats Marine. Cuttlebones have both gas-filled forward chambers and water-filled rear chambers. Although it can take hours for the cuttlefish to change its density through its cuttlebone alone, the animal can control its positioning in the water with the aid of its specialized fins and mantle.
The cuttlebone is rich in calcium and is often sold in pet stores as a nutritional supplement for birds. A cuttlefish looks on through its large eye. Note the clear "W" shape of its pupil. Eye Although color-blind, the cuttlefish has two of the most highly developed eyes in the animal kingdom. It can see well in low light and can also detect polarized light, enhancing its perception of contrast. While we humans reshape our lenses in order to focus on specific objects, the cuttlefish moves its lenses by reshaping its entire eye.
Also, the cuttlefish's eyes are very large in proportion to its body and may increase image magnification upon the retina, while the distinct "W"-shaped pupil helps control the intensity of light entering the eye. The cuttlefish's undulating fins can move more freely than fish fins because they lack both bony and cartilaginous supports. Fin While the cuttlefish uses its mantle cavity for jet propulsion, it relies on its specialized fins for basic mobility and maintaining consistent speeds.
Resembling a short, flouncy skirt, the muscular fin can maneuver the cuttlefish in nearly any direction: backward, forward, even in circles, with such movement being more energetically efficient than jetting.
The movement and positioning of the fins also come into play when smaller males in certain species mimic the opposite sex in order to swim past larger males and gain access to females.
The cuttlefish's pair of orange gills one appears above filter oxygen from seawater and deliver it to the bloodstream. Gills, Hearts, and Blood The cuttlefish has three hearts, with two pumping blood to its large gills and one circulating the oxygenated blood to the rest of its body. The blood itself is blue-green in color because it possesses hemocyanin, a copper-containing protein typical in cephalopods—cuttlefish, octopuses, and squids—that transports oxygen throughout their bodies.
Mammals' red blood uses the iron-rich protein hemoglobin to do the same thing. The dark ink sac can be seen clearly in this image of part of the mantle cavity. Ink Sac Like its close relatives, the squid and octopus, the cuttlefish is equipped with an ink sac that can help it make a last-ditch escape from predators that hunt by sight. The cuttlefish can eject its ink in two ways. One way creates a smoke screen behind which the animal can escape perceived danger. In the other, the released ink takes the form of "pseudomorphs," or bubbles of ink surrounded by mucus that are roughly the size of the cuttlefish and can act as decoys.
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