Cuttlefish are capable of showing dozens of body patterns for camouflage and these body patterns can be grouped into three categories: uniform/stipple, mottle, and disruptive. Aside from skin patterns, cuttlefish can augment camouflage with postural and 3-D skin texture: by contorting their arms in different postures that generally imitate nearby algae, and by sprouting spiky skin projections, called papillae, imitating the physical texture of the surrounding seaweed, rock or coral. The chromatophores and skin papillae can change about one second faster than any other animal. Both skin texture and color changes are directly controlled by the animal's brain. Messages enter the brain through the eye via the optic nerve, are processed in the CNS, and then the skin is changed by direct neural control of the pigmented chromatophores.

References

Hanlon, R. T. and J. B. Messenger. 1996. Cephalopod Behavior. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Hanlon, R. T., M. J. Naud, J. W. Forsythe, K. Hall, A. C. Watson, and J. McKechnie. 2007. Adaptable night camouflage by cuttlefish. Am Nat 169: 543-551

Mathger, L. M., A. Barbosa, S. Miner, and R. T. Hanlon. 2006. Color blindness and contrast perception in cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) determined by a visual sensorimotor assay. Vision Research 46(11): 1746-1753.

Oceanworld Cuttlefish Fact Files