BrainStuff Classics: How Does Cuttlefish Camouflage Work?

vogel Bomb. Here cuttlefish. These cephalopods, known for their stunning ability to instantly change color and texture to blend into their surroundings, have another newly discovered trick. Researchers have found that these squidgy creatures can freeze their camouflage palette and lock it in place for up to an hour without

any energy consuming input from their main nervous system. That superpower allows them to hold their disguise for long periods to avoid being detected and thus to avoid being eaten. It also helps them snatch their own prey, as they can remain essentially invisible as they lie in wait. The finding, published in the journal I Science, not only reveals yet another clever strategy of these ocean floor dwelling masters of disguise.

It also lends further guidance for engineers hoping to borrow from the animal's tricks to develop new technologies, such as maps that can spring into three dimensions and soft bodied robots that could, say, wrap around a human leg to provide support. As with many discoveries, scientists stumbled upon this one nearly by accident. The researchers were working at the

Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. They were trying to trace how the cuttlefish's nervous system directs its skin to transform its three D texture within seconds to blend

into the background of say kelp or a rock. When they sliced through one of the two main nerves that runs along the side of a cuttle fish, they expected the animal would lose its camouflage on the corresponding side of that nerve, but instead, the three dimensional texture provided by nodes on the skin of the cuttle fish, called papala, stayed intact. We spoke with Trevor Wardill, co author of the study and a neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge.

He said, it was really quite surprising in fact, when we first saw it. Generally, when you cut input to a muscle. It just relaxes and that's the end of it. We thought we did something wrong, but repeat takes of the procedures showed the phenomenon was no fluke the animals, by the way, we're not killed by the procedure and we're able to continue swimming and feeding in a tank at the MBL facility. The team's finding is the first time this kind of lock or catch muscle, as it's known,

has been detected in any cephalopod. Wardell says they believe it's similar to a kind of locking mechanism used by clams and muscles to seal shut without expending energy. For the cuttle fish, which, as any wild animal, relies on every calorie it consumes to survive, having a way to maintain its disguise without constantly pumping out energy is an

ingenious survival strategy. Like an e reader that only uses energy when you turn the page, you expend way less energy than with a tablet that's constantly refreshing its screen. The researchers suspect that squid, which hang out in the ocean's upper water columns, may have the same ability. Squid don't transform the texture of their skin as cuttlefish do likely because the increase in drag would make such rough

surfaces more of a liability than an advantage. But these cephalopods blend in by shifting the ear doesn't quality of their skin, effectively changing how the sun's light reflects off of their bodies. Observations have shown that squid even use their eardescence to hypnotize prey such as crabs, in their sites.

In investigating the cuttlefish's neurotransmitters, they found striking similarities to neural circuits used by squid to manipulate their eardescence, so they suspect squid may have a similar ability to lock in a certain air doescent to look. Wardell said the same nerve controls appear to control papelae in cuttlefish and aridescence in squid. We suspect they must have a common ancestor for this control system, but the jury is still out.

Ordered that scientists have uncovered yet another neat cephalopod trick is exciting news to people like James Pickle, and Assistant Professor in the Partment of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania. Pickle's research group recently borrowed from previous studies on the cephalopods to mimic the cuttlefish's quick changing textural camouflage in synthetic form using silicon and

fiber mesh rings. He envisions building on the cuttlefish's dynamic texture changing ability to generate a GPS map that could lie flat in a vehicle and then, upon command, spring into three dimensions to offer a vivid, fully contoured view of the driver's route. Pickle also predicts endless medical applications that could borrow from the cephalopod, including soft robots that could instantly bend and conform to mold around a patient's

injury or even envelope and support a beating heart. To accomplish those visions, Pickle foreseas taking inspiration and guidance from the cuttlefish and then advancing it. He conceives, for example, of developing individual artificial papillae that could not only be activated or deactivated to match surrounding, but also be prompted to take on a specific shape to create a surface that's even more fine tuned. The latest research on the cuttle fish was funded by the Air Force Office of

scientific research. Wardille points out that the military's interest in the animals goes beyond camouflage. He said, they're also interested because of material science. You can imagine you can take a very flat structure and by activating it fom a three dimensional shape. That ability could be really helpful if you need to transport a structure flat to a location

and then expanded out. Pickle said, nature has already begun the design process, so we don't have to start at zero, but ultimately we want to go beyond what even these amazing animals can do. Today's episode was originally produced by Tristan McNeil and is based on the article Cuddlefish Masters of Camouflage have a newly discovered superpower on how stuff Works dot Com, written by Amanda Onion. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff

Works dot Com and is produced by Tyler Clay. Four more podcasts my Heart Radio visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or where every listen to your favorite shows. M