What Are Cephalopods?

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9/6/2013

What Are Cephalopods?

                There are many unusual families of sea creature.  One of the many and large family groups are the Cephalopods.  Some of them are the octopus, the cuttlefish (which FYI is not cuddly), the nautilus, the squid, and about 600 other different species.  Cephalopod means “head-foot”, which indicates that their feet are close to their head; which they have a lot.  The octopus has (as you might know) eight legs, the squid and the cuttlefish have about ten, and the nautilus can have up to ninety legs!  But that’s not the end of the discussion with their feet.  They can use their feet to squirt water out at jet speed to move around quickly with jet propulsion.  Cephalopods can also use their bountiful feet to eject ink, which makes a “smoke screen” to blind a predator for a quick escape.  They also have pigment cells called chromatophores.  These cells allow them to change their color to match their surroundings.  Cephalopods can also change shape, meaning on moment it’ll look like a squid or cuttlefish, the next moment it’ll look like a crab or jellyfish.  So in the end, Cephalopods are more than just what we see, and hear about.  They are more than just regular sea creatures with eight (or more) legs.

Image taken from this site that requires further investigation:  http://duchienscience.weebly.com/mollusk-discovery.html

Here's a visually stunning moment, plus and informative video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VjxvrXGEHk