Cephalopods, such as octopus and squid, can change their coloration in an instant, and even produce moving patterns on their skin. A new study describes these wavelike patterns in a colourful tropical cuttlefish, providing insights into the neural mechanisms that generate them.

This article comprises an up-dated review of the processes influencing the distribution and abundance of common cuttlefish Sepia officinalis, the interactions between the species and the main parameters of the environment in which it lives and its trophic, demographic and behavioural ecology.

The functional relevance of oxygen transport by hemocyanin of the Antarctic octopod Megaleledone senoi and of the eurythermal cuttlefish Sepia officinalis was analyzed by continuous and simultaneous recordings of changes in pH and hemocyanin oxygen saturation in whole blood at various temperatures. These data were compared to literature data on other temperate and cold-water cephalopods (octopo...

We experienced five cases of Salmonella oranienburg infection in children living in Saitama prefecture. Thereafter the number of patients with S. oranienburg infection increased not only in Saitama (55 cases) but also in other parts of Japan in 1999 (1505 cases) in 1999. The source of S. oranienburg infection was identified as a snack made from semi-dry cuttlefish.

Assim Boukhayma 1,*, Arnaud Peizerat 2 and Christian Enz 1 1 Integrated Circuits Lab (ICLAB), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Microcity, Rue de la Maladière 71, Neuchâtel 2000, Switzerland; [email protected] 2 Laboratoire de l’ Électronique et Technologies de l’ Information (Leti), Commissariat a l’ Énergie Atomique (CEA), Rue des Marthyrs 17, Grenoble 38000, France; arnaud...

In complex navigation using landmarks, an animal must discriminate between potential cues and show context (condition) sensitivity. Such conditional discrimination is considered a form of complex learning and has been associated primarily with vertebrates. We tested the hypothesis that octopuses and cuttleWsh are capable of conditional discrimination. Subjects were trained in two maze conWgurat...

Population substructure of the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis (Mollusca: Cephalopoda), as investigated by genetic variation of microsatellite loci, has been reported to be significantly extensive around the Iberian Peninsula with F(ST)=0.061 [Pérez-Losada, M., Guerra, A., Carvalho, G.R., Sanjuan, A., Shaw, P.W., 2002. Extensive population subdivision of the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis (Mollusca:...