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Aww, aint this lil’ guy just the cutest?!! This my friends, is a cuttlefish, a cousin of squids, octopuses, and other Cephalopods.

And what makes these little buggers so awesome? Well, besides having w-shaped pupils, eyes that work on polarization more than color, likely being the most intelligent invertebrate species, having blue-green blood that uses Hemocyanin instead of hemoglobin, producing ink called sepia that was the original sepia ink used in writing, and just being all-around the coolest creature ever, they are also the most amazing quick-changing artists ever.

The skin of these beasties contain tiny colored sacs that can be reshaped via muscle control. These colors can blend, even more so than the pixels on a TV/computer screen to form amazing colors and patterns, all very quickly. In addition, underneath all this is a layer that reflects blues and greens which can also add a metallic tint. And to top it all off, these guys can also change the polarization of the light reflecting off their skin, to add yet another dimension of variability to their appearance. This all happens in the blink of an eye, and is all housed in an invertebrate’s body, so shape changes too.

Nova recently did a special on them called Kings of Camouflage and they have some cool short videos online, and if you have some spare time, you can also watch the whole thing on Google Video.

There are more things in heaven and earth, my dear reader, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

-c

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