THIS Week’s Talk: DISGUISE AND DECEPTIVE APPEARANCE

The skin of the cuttlefish and the rest of the octopus family are lined with two layers of color-producing cells. The top layer is pigmented with red, yellow, and brown and the bottom layer shifts its iridescent colors depending on the angle of light.

Then, the brain passes signals and information to the skin layers and the layers match its surroundings. The cuttlefish can fool a predator in two ways, creating a close match to the background or a pattern that disrupts recognition shape of the cuttlefish.