BrainStuff Classics: How Does Cuttlefish Camouflage Work?

Researchers have found that cuttlefish's ability to change their color and texture at will is incredibly energy efficient. Learn why -- and how technology might copy this ability -- in this classic episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://animals.howstuffworks.com/fish/cuttlefish-masters-camouflage-have-newly-discovered-super-power.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
brain Stuff. I'm Lauren vogel Bomb, and today's episode is
another classic from our archives. I'm fascinated by cephalopods, the
category of animals that includes creatures like squid, octopuses, and cuttlefish,
so I'm always excited when new research pops up about them.

(00:22):
Today's classic deals with exactly that, Hey brain Stuff, Lauren
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

(00:43):
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

(01:05):
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

(01:25):
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

(01:47):
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

(02:08):
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,

(02:29):
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

(02:51):
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

(03:13):
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

(03:35):
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

(03:55):
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

(04:18):
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

(04:38):
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

(04:58):
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

(05:20):
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

(05:43):
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.

(06:11):
M