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  • Hello.

  • My name is Catie Wayne.

  • And welcome to "Weird, Gross, & Beautiful,"

  • a casual discussion about animals that I think

  • are weird, gross, beautiful, or all three.

  • And today we're talking about cuttlefish.

  • Not cuddlefish, cut-tle-fish.

  • I was confused, too.

  • [THEME MUSIC]

  • Cuttlefish are distributed all around the world.

  • And there is over 120 different types of species of them.

  • Cuttlefish are cephalopods.

  • And they were around way before the first shark or fishes

  • ever evolved.

  • Cuttlefish ancestors used to have

  • shells on their backs, kind of like hermit crabs,

  • as a means of defense.

  • But nowadays, cuttlefish have camouflage to protect them.

  • They got all the little cells all over their bodies.

  • And they change the colors to fit in with their environments

  • So cuttlefish have like 20 million chromatophores

  • all over its body, or like little cells that

  • are attached to muscles.

  • And then they flex their muscles.

  • And then that's how they change their colors.

  • And because cuttlefish are cephalopods,

  • they also produce ink, like a brownish color-y type of ink.

  • And humans use it in art all the time.

  • And in fact, the color named sepia

  • comes from the cuttlefish's original name,

  • "Sepia officinalis."

  • Cuttlefish have relatively short lives.

  • They only live for about one to two years.

  • But they grow very, very quickly.

  • Since they grow so fast, they spend a lot of their time

  • resting-- 95% of their time, to be exact.

  • What a life, man.

  • Cuttlefish have an internal structure

  • called a cuttlebone, which is kind of funny.

  • The cuttlebone helps keep them buoyant,

  • so it allows them to help conserve

  • their energy, which they need to do.

  • Remember?

  • We just talked about this.

  • It's either filled with liquid or gas,

  • depending on the time of day, and depending on how buoyant

  • the cuttlefish wants to be.

  • When cuttlefish die, the bones wash up onto shore.

  • And humans will gather them to feed

  • to their domesticated birds as like a calcium treat.

  • And with their special skin that they have,

  • where they go swish, swish, swish, swish,

  • they will hunt and communicate with each other.

  • And also, they will mate.

  • Two males, they'll flash at each other really

  • aggressively, and be like, no.

  • I'm the prettiest one, so I'm going to get the female.

  • And the other one's like, no, look how brightly I shine.

  • And he's like, aw, yeah.

  • That's unfortunate.

  • The bigger, most impressive male usually wins.

  • But, however, comma, sometimes tiny males

  • can successfully mate with a female

  • via female impersonation.

  • So he'll go over to her, and camouflage

  • himself to look like her, and just kind of attach onto her.

  • And then maybe, if he looks like her long enough,

  • the other male won't notice that they are mating.

  • [LAUGHING] He's just like, oh god, oh god.

  • [LAUGHING]

  • Thank you so much for watching "Weird, Gross, & Beautiful."

  • My name is Catie Wayne.

  • And if would like to, you can follow me

  • on Twitter @catiewayne.

  • And let me know what animal you would like me to cover next.

  • Today's episode was suggested by Mike @Vurtax.

  • So thank you so much for the suggestion, lovely.

  • Muah.

  • And, while you're doing stuff for me,

  • you should check out this video over here

  • about the nine Twitter followers that you need to have.

  • It's a new daily show that I like to do, called "Anywho."

  • And we have selected Rony Dixon's t-shirt design

  • to be the first ever "Weird, Gross & Beautiful"

  • t-shirt to be sold.

  • Congratulations.

  • I love it so much.

  • I think it's so cute.

  • And I love it.

  • And soon it will be available to buy an animalist.com/store.

  • And until next time, please share this video and stuff.

  • And I love you.

  • And I'll see you.

  • Bye.

  • Muah.

Hello.

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