Australian giant cuttlefish
Sepia apama
- Scientific name
- Sepia apama
- Group
- Cephalopods
- Rarity
- Rare
- Where to see it
- Indo-Pacific & Red Sea
- Conservation status (IUCN)
- Near threatened
Did you know?
The Australian giant cuttlefish, the largest cuttlefish species in the world, gathers by the tens of thousands each winter in Spencer Gulf for a mating display found nowhere else on Earth.
What defines this group — Cephalopods
Octopuses, cuttlefish, squid and nautiluses: molluscs that became the most intelligent invertebrates.
- Eight arms — ten in cuttlefish and squid — set around a horny beak.
- Skin cells called chromatophores change colour and texture in a fraction of a second.
- Three hearts, and blue blood that carries oxygen with copper rather than iron.