Metasepia pfefferi

Laboratory scientists are raising another species, known as the flamboyant cuttlefish, which has masterful camouflage of its own. Organs called chromatophores, which contain sacs of skin pigment, dot their skin. Small muscles tug those sacs open or closed to rapidly change the cuttlefish’s color.

Roger Hanlon, who has been studying cephalopod camouflage for decades, summarized 10 years of work, 30 journal papers, observations of 800 animals and “a lot of diving” as this: “They only seem to have three to four basic pattern designs that they produce in their skin to create different kinds of camouflage on any background they encounter.”

In other words, cuttlefish can’t perfectly match a coral reef. But the patterns they make are enough to fool eel and fish eyes — and are a vulnerable cuttlefish’s strongest defense in a hungry ocean.