NOVA is going to be showing a program on the cuttlefish Tuesday evening, 3 April — it’s called Kings of Camouflage, and the website for it is also very well done, with nice illustrations of anatomy and behavior, and one excellent clip of color changes. I’m definitely going to tune in, check it out!
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Thanks for the heads up! Cuttlefish are so mesmerizingly beautiful.
It’s on TUESDAY Apr 3rd in our dimension…
You and your inferior dimension…
I really like the cuttlefish anatomy interactive on the Nova site. Now I’ll have to watch the program. Thanks for the post.
I’ll have you know that a friend at work returned from a week long scuba trip this week and was showing me her underwater photos. A photo of a cuttlefish came up and she had labeled it “squid.” Now, personally, I much prefer the cuttlefish to squid, so I could not let this pass. She had never heard of cuttlefish, and she is a master dive instructor!
So this program is timely in my little world. I showed her some uTube videos of cuttlefish and in the process came upon the trailer for this program. Now, we both get to enjoy the cuttlefish experience. If I were a biologist I’d obsess over cuttlefish.
That looks to be the same documentary as The Brainy Bunch seen in Australia last Thursday.
Yep, looks like the Brainy Bunch. Highly recommended. I want to be a cuttlefish in my next life.
Also “Encountering Sea Monsters”
Sunday, April 8 on
Nature
The underwater world of cephalopods (octopuses and squid) is explored by cameraman Bob Cranston, who observes the creatures in waters off Indonesia, Australia, Mexico, British Columbia and Texas.
I’ll see your cephalopod and raise you fossil plants, airing April 17. Go Nova!
Interesting online article on “Cephalopods: Chameleons of the Sea”
http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/midorcas/animalphysiology/websites/2006/davillarreal/Introduction.htm
Goes into the physiology of color change in cephalopods…a nice bit of info…
I used to catch these guys when I was a kid in South Australia. Makes me feel guilty now.
I’ve been diving in SA and had them follow me around and even had a large one attch itself to my fin. Not sure if he was trying to eat it or mate with it.
Either way they are amazing to watch.
I still can’t find an explanation of how these extraordinary creatures are able to adjust their skin coloration and texture to match the local background. According to what I read, they’re colour-blind so it doesn’t sound like they simply scan the area visually and some how translate that information into commands for skin colour and texture.
Nature: Encountering Sea Monsters
Rebroadcast PBS Sunday, April 8th 8pm (also 9th 4am & 10th 2am)
Originally broadcast Dec 2005.
This is the San Diego PBS site, but seems to be the same elsewhere.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/schedule_airdates.html?title_id=70&display_format=ep_description&display_feed=904&display_date=2007-04-08&display_time=20:00&feeds=&station=KPBS&zipcode=92126&transport=&provider=&channelsuppress=f
I just saw it. It was extremely interesting. The cuttle fish are like aliens. Truly amazing. It’s a shame evil humans and dolphins eat the poor cuties.