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Cuttlefish

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Cuttlefish
Temporal range: Miocene – Recent[1][2]
Cuttlefish from multiple genera
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Order: Sepiida
Superfamily: Sepioidea
Family: Sepiidae
Leach, 1817
Genera

Cuttlefish, or cuttles, are marine molluscs of the family Sepiidae. They belong to the class Cephalopoda which also includes squid, octopuses, and nautiluses. Cuttlefish have a unique internal shell, the cuttlebone, which is used for control of buoyancy. They have large, W-shaped pupils, eight arms, and two tentacles furnished with denticulated suckers, with which they secure their prey. They generally range in size from 15 to 25 cm (6 to 10 in), with the largest species, the giant cuttlefish (Sepia apama), reaching 50 cm (20 in) in mantle length and more than 10.5 kg (23 lb) in mass.[3]

Cuttlefish eat small molluscs, crabs, shrimp, fish, octopuses and other cuttlefish. Their predators include dolphins, larger fish (including sharks), seals, seabirds, and other cuttlefish. The typical life expectancy of a cuttlefish is about 1–2 years. Studies are said to indicate cuttlefish to be among the most intelligent invertebrates.[4] Cuttlefish also have one of the largest brain-to-body size ratios of all invertebrates.[4]

The Greco-Roman world valued the cuttlefish as a source of the unique brown pigment the creature releases from its siphon when it is alarmed. The word for the cuttlefish in both Greek and Latin, sepia, now refers to the reddish-brown color sepia in English.

Nomenclature

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The "cuttle" in "cuttlefish", which is itself sometimes used to refer to these animals,[5] is derived from the Old English name for the group, cudele. The word may be cognate with the Old Norse koddi (cushion) and the Middle Low German Kudel (rag).[6]

Taxonomy

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One hundred sixteen species of cuttlefish are currently recognized;[7] for decades, the classification of this family relied on just three genera: Metasepia, Sepia, and Sepiella, with Sepia containing most of the species and several subgenera.[citation needed] A 2023 paper shifted this perception by having recovered Sepia as containing several monophyletic groups or clades. The authors subsequently revived several synonymized genera and elevated some subgenera of Sepia to full genus level, reassigning many species of Sepia to these revived genera. Conversely, Metasepia was found to nest within one of these revived genera, and as it was named after Ascarosepion it became a junior synonym of that genus.[8]

Maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree from Lupše et al. 2023[8]
Sepiidae
Sepia bertheloti was also analyzed, but its position within this analysis was poorly resolved.[8]

The genera and species of Sepiidae is as follows:[7]

The subsequent species are in need of taxonomic review, as they were not examined in the 2023 study.