Collecticids transformed into corals to hunt

The capsule uses the ability to disguise ingenious to hide yourself when ambushing the prey. The new film ruler of British scientists revealed their impressive imitation techniques, including changes in shapes to look like a harmless object like a leaf or coral. “They are masters of underwater hypnosis,” researcher Matteo Santon at the University of Bristol, UK, commented.

The capsule can change the color and pattern in less than a second thanks to millions of pigment bags on the skin called a pigment cell (chromatophore). They can also create and control the exact pattern on the body, like stripes. When Santon came to Indonesia to study BroadClub capsules (Sepia latimanus), he realized that each cell could perform different types of camouflage.

After months of monitoring, Santon and his colleagues recorded 98 squids chasing prey 234 times. During several hunting, the capsule turned into blue gray, stretched out one arm on each side and blinked the dark line along the body many times. At other hunting times, they reached their arms forward in a twisted cone and swinged a black stripes under the arm. Some individuals spread all 8 arms in front of the body and turn yellow and speckled orange to simulate multiple branches. Many squid adapted a underwater leaf by switching to olive green tones, reaching out in 3 directions and slowly floating up and down.

According to Santon, each technique has a different purpose. His preliminary research showed the stripes that glanced over the capsule to approach or created enough disorder of the image to deceive the prey. The way to disguise into a leaf and coral can look like a harmless object in the sea, allowing the capsule to approach the prey faster and avoid being seen by meat animals.

The researchers were unclear how the capsule decided how to camouflage. Their options may depend on the surrounding environment or the type of hunting prey, or randomly changing camouflage to prevent other animals from learning tricks.