Flamboyant Cuttlefish

M. pfefferi is mainly found in the shallow tropical waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and northern Australia (stretching from South Queensland to Western Australia) (Marine Bio). Their preference of coastal areas leaves them susceptible to conservation threats such as habitat destruction of coral reef systems, run off pollution, and inefficient fishing methods (Monterey Bay Aquarium).

Fig. 1 (Roper et al 2005)

They have three specialized types of cells that allow their rapid color change: chromatophores, leucophores and iridophores (Marguerite 2000). These color changes, along with textural and postural changes, are used by M. pfefferi as a means of communication. There are eleven different known patterns M. pfefferi exhibits, though it is not yet known what these patterns are specifically meant to communicate (Thomas and MacDonald 2016). Changes in papillae (which control texture of the cuttlefish) are caused by visual, rather than tactile cues (Allen et al. 2009). Cuttlefish have four distinct main regions of wave travel, which are hypothesized to be controlled by just one central circuit system due to their synchronized pattern changes (Laans et al. 2014). This comes from observations of M. tullbergi, rather than M. pfefferi, but the two are very closely related and likely experience similar mechanisms.

TOXICITY

Not only is M. pfefferi unique in being the only known poisonous cuttlefish, it also has toxins equal to that of the blue-ringed octopus and is capable of being lethal to humans. Even more interesting, the toxin that its muscles produce is not known yet (Ross 2010).

REPRODUCTION

The left ventral arm, known as a hectocotylus, is a modified for mating. A packet of sperm from the hectocotylus is deposited on the underside of the female's mantle as the two cuttlefish meet face to face (Marine Bio). The female will fertilize the eggs and lay them in in areas such as crevices in coral, rock, and wood (Roper et al. 2005).

RANGE