Cuttlefish learn from watching potential prey even before they are born

Blogging on Peer-Reviewed ResearchFor humans, sight is the most important of senses but only after we are born. Within the womb, surrounded by fluid, muscle and darkness, vision is of limited use and our eyes remain closed. But not all animals are similarly kept in the dark.

i-268c823ec26b7dea70cb8671750a4768-Untitled-1.jpgCuttlefish develop inside eggs that are initially stained black with ink, but as the embryo grows and the egg swells, the outer layer slowly becomes transparent. By this time, the developing cuttlefish's eyes are fully formed and we now know that even before they are born, they can use visual information from the outside world to shape their adult behaviour. 

Cuttlefish, and their relatives the squid and octopuses, rely on vision as strongly as we do. Their ability to change colour, shape and pattern is the basis for attack, defence and a wondrous system of communication. Right from the moment of hatching, sight is a crucial part of a cuttlefish's life, for they receive no care from their parents and have to find food solo. Now, Anne-Sophie Darmaillacq from the Université de Caen Basse-Normandie has found that they can use information gleaned from inside the egg to help them.

Darmaillacq suspended eggs laid by a captive female in a shallow tank. The eggs sat in the middle of two compartments, which has glass sides and opaque plastic floors. In some cases, the compartments were empty and in others, they contained crabs. The embryos could see what was in the compartments, but as they hatched and sank to the bottom of the tank, their views were obscured. The hatchlings were collected and after a week of hunger, Darmaillacq gave them a choice of either crab or sand shrimp.

She found that youngsters that had been treated to the sight of crabs as embryos preferred them once they had hatched. If their eggs had been suspended between compartments filled with crabs, the youngsters showed a clear preference for them, with 71% of juveniles choosing crab from the menu. In contrast, just 10% of cuttlefish whose eggs lay between empty compartments picked crabs over shrimp.

This is the first instance of embryonic visual learning in any animal. Other studies have found that the foetuses of other species, from humans to dogs to birds, can learn from chemical cues that they detect while in the womb. But the cuttlefish were clearly learning from sight, for the embryos couldn't possibly have smelled any chemical cues from the crabs, which were completely encased in plastic.

The ability to see and learn about potential prey items that wander by their eggs may be important for young cuttlefish. Female cuttlefish generally lay their eggs in shallow water, and Darmaillacq speculates that they may choose sites where hatchlings can easily find potential prey. Being able to learn the visual characteristics of the local menu would be useful to them in their search.

Reference: DARMAILLACQ, A., LESIMPLE, C., DICKEL, L. (2008). Embryonic visual learning in the cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis. Animal Behaviour, 76(1), 131-134. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2008.02.006

Image: by Diliff

Categories

More like this

New research published in the journal, Animal Behavior, has shed light on an extraordinary adaptation of unborn cuttlefish: the ability to visualize prey while they are still in their egg casings. Even more astonishing is the findings that embryonic cuttlefish who were exposed to crabs preferred…
Everyone knows the story of Konrad Lorenz and his goslings, right? It was a demonstration of imprinting: when young animals are exposed to a stimulus at a critical time, they can fix on it; Lorenz studied this phenomenon in geese, which if they saw him shortly after hatching, would treat him like…
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a dolphin that has mastered the trick of killing cuttlefish and elaborately preparing them for a meal. It was a great story that highlighted just how intelligent and versatile dolphins can be, but it was a bit of a bittersweet report. The cuttlefish didn't…
Cuttlefish are intelligent animals that can hide from predators by changing colour and texture, and squirting out a smokescreen of black ink. But amazing though cuttlefish are, their defences mean nothing against one of the most intelligent hunters in the ocean - the bottlenose dolphin. Julian…

Sorry, but Eric Hovind, the son of a creationist, already knew that Cephalopods already know everything when they're born. They have to, otherwise evolution would be real! And he did it without reading some nerdy science paper.

http://drdino.com/readNews.php?id=50

That's great stuff and raises some really interesting questions about how much you can affect a cuttlefish before it is technically even born.

By mike spear (not verified) on 27 Jun 2008 #permalink

That Eric Hovind video is so stupid. He just sits there and goes "oooohhh" "Ahhhhh...!" immediately declaring it doesn't fit the models for evolution.

We need more people like Yong here to take peer reviewed research digest it and regurgitate down the throats of the masses like a motherbird to her young.

Eww that analogy was disgusting

I really like how they put the crabs in plastic. As I reading this post I thought immediately "but what about chemical cues" and then seconds later I came to that sentence. This is a good example of a well-thought out experiment with a really neat result.