Common cuttlefish
Sepia officinalis · The common cuttlefish is a cephalopod native to the Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, and Baltic Sea, where it lives on sand and mud seabeds.
Also called European common cuttlefish.
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Taxonomy
| Kingdom | Animalia |
|---|---|
| Phylum | Mollusca |
| Class | Cephalopoda |
| Order | Sepiida |
| Family | Sepiidae |
| Genus | Sepia |
| Species | Sepia officinalis |
Where it lives
Coasts from the North Sea to South Africa, including the Mediterranean.
Fun facts
- A cuttlefish can control its color-changing chromatophores even before hatching, while still inside its clear egg.
- Male cuttlefish can carry up to 1,400 spermatophores, while females can lay as many as 4,000 eggs.
- Cuttlefish embryos that see crabs before hatching grow up to prefer hunting crabs, even though shrimp is usually the favorite prey.
- The common cuttlefish can grow up to 49 centimetres long and weigh as much as 4 kilograms.
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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).