If you’ve so much as stuck your face in the shallow waters around Bermuda, you’ve probably seen a school of Caribbean Reef Squid. These small creatures with the big eyes frequent areas near docks or over seagrass, propelling themselves backwards with their tentacles trailing behind. Though you may see a group enjoying a leisurely swim, they can move quite fast when they spot potential prey.
The squid’s skin is usually a mottled brown colour, which can darken or lighten depending on mood and what they want to communicate. Much like other cephalopods, it has the ability to change both skin colour and pattern for a variety of reasons like defense, courting or hunting. In fact, many patterns are linked to specific behaviours. Pattern changes during hunting, for example, may include a particular pattern persisting during the attack, and at least 40 body patterns can be observed in defensive situations including bars, belly stripe, dark arms, yellow flecked, speckled belly, streaks, zebra coloration and golden eyebrows. During courtship, males often show zebra display with shimmering chromatophores to exhibit vigor. Some Caribbean Reef Squid have even been observed imitating parrotfish, swimming backward with its arms and tentacles held together while displaying two eye spots!
So how do they manage this superpower? It’s accomplished by the brain directly controlling the chromatophores, or colour-changing cells just below the skin surface. Each chromatophore contains a balloon-like elastic sac full of pigment. A complex array of nerves and muscles controls whether the sac is expanded or contracted, and when the sac expands, the colour is brighter and more visible.
