Octopuses and other Cephalopods

Assorted on the science and biology of Octopuses.

Prey and predators alike are also regularly flummoxed by coleoid skin, the most complex camouflage system in nature. The word “chameleonic” should really be “cephalopodic” to reflect the fact that squid, octopuses, and cuttlefish are much better than any reptile at instantly matching their environment. The chameleon’s skin-changing system relies on hormones, which have to be manufactured in the brain and then distributed around the body in the bloodstream. The cephalopod’s system is under direct nervous control. Each spot of color (of which there can be more than two hundred in a square millimeter of skin) is controlled by tiny nerves that connect straight back to the brain. “Rapid” color change in chameleons takes a couple of minutes; changes in squid skin have been clocked at up to four per second.

— Staaf, Danna. Monarchs of the Sea: The Extraordinary 500-Million-Year History of Cephalopods

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