Let's start with the name. When hearing about this, sometimes people think 'cuddle.' But it's 'cuttle.' This supposedly derives from the Norwegian "koddi" meaning testicle. The literal described shape of these things. And fish.... they are not fish. They are molluscs (Squid, Octopus, Nautilus), as you probably guessed.
There are all sorts of cuttlefish all over the world, but this one in particular lives in Australia and its mantle grows to be about 20 inches long.
As you can see, this species can take different shapes, colors and textures. What's even cooler, is that they can all change colors and textures, its not just a variety of traits and one is born one way and one is born another. They has also have a striking ability to display color patterns for both mating and defending territory.
Another thing that makes the cuttlefish unique is its eyes. Thought to be some of the best developed eyes of any invertebrate, these creatures, these creatures develop full eyesight while still in the egg. To the point that it is thought that prey that it sees while IN the egg are the prey they prefer for the rest of their life. Even stranger, it is thought that their eyes developed completely independent of the evolution of human or other vertebrate eyes -- meaning convergent evolution led to the development of eyes more than one time.
To blow your mind, I HIGHLY recommend watching this. If that's too long for you to watch at work, here's another video:
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