Science Today: Colorful Cephalopods | California Academy of Sciences

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A cephalopod is a mollusk
like a snail or a clam

except it's more like a uber mollusk.

It's way more intelligent.

The foot of a snail has been transformed

into a bunch of appendages

that the cephalopod uses
to catch its prey.

I think it's the coolest animal
on the planet, actually.

Most cephalopods can change colors.

They have these color-changing cells
in their skin that change size.

And they're controlled by muscles.

So they could change size
and expose more color instantly.

So they can put on huge light shows

and pulls colors across their skin
and change color in an instant.

It's really kind of shocking.

They change colors to hypnotize prey
or to hide from prey.

They change colors to hide
from being preyed upon.

And they change colors
to communicate in some sense.

So you can have them territorially
flashing colors at each other.

You know, two different males
in the same territory

saying, "Get away from me."

You can have a male with a female
on one side of him

and a male on the other side

and they could split their colors
down the middle.

So on the side with the female,
he'll look all pretty

And the side with the male,
he'll look all terrifying.

The Day Optopus, which is found
all over the South Pacific

and even into the Indian Ocean.

And they change colors,

so you could swim right up to him
and you won't see him.

And all of a sudden,
they'll change colors.

The flamboyant Cuttlefish
has got red and purple

and white and yellow on it.

And those colors kind of pulse around
on its body.

My all-time favorite
is the Broadband cuttlefish.

And what this thing does is
it pulses color

up and down its body.

And the idea is that it's kind of like
a hypnotizing light show,

kind of like one of those spinning boards
with a spiral on it

and the prey kind of goes, "What's that?"

And then they eat them.

They're fantastic animals

and we don't know enough about them.