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Cuttlefish are marine animals of the order Sepiida. They belong to the class Cephalopoda, which also includes squid, octopodes, and nautiluses. Cuttlefish have a unique internal shell, the cuttlebone. Despite their name, cuttlefish are not fish but molluscs. Cuttlefish have large, W-shaped pupils, eight arms, and two tentacles furnished with denticulated suckers, with which they secure their prey. They generally range in size from , with the largest species, ''Sepia apama'', reaching in mantle length and over in mass.〔Reid, A., P. Jereb, & C. F. E. Roper 2005. Family Sepiidae. ''In:'' P. Jereb & C. F. E. Roper, eds. ''Cephalopods of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of species known to date. Volume 1. Chambered nautiluses and sepioids (Nautilidae, Sepiidae, Sepiolidae, Sepiadariidae, Idiosepiidae and Spirulidae)''. FAO Species Catalogue for Fishery Purposes. No. 4, Vol. 1. Rome, FAO. pp. 57–152.〕 Cuttlefish eat small molluscs, crabs, shrimp, fish, octopodes, worms, and other cuttlefish. Their predators include dolphins, sharks, fish, seals, seabirds, and other cuttlefish. The average life expectancy of a cuttlefish is about one to two years. Recent studies indicate cuttlefish are among the most intelligent invertebrates.〔(NOVA, 2007. Cuttlefish: Kings of Camouflage. ) (television program) NOVA, PBS, April 3, 2007.〕 Cuttlefish also have one of the largest brain-to-body size ratios of all invertebrates.〔 The 'cuttle' in 'cuttlefish' comes from the Old English word ''cudele'', meaning 'cuttlefish', which may be cognate with the Old Norse ''koddi'' ('cushion') and the Middle Low German ''küdel'' ('pouch'). The Greco-Roman world valued the cephalopod as a source of the unique brown pigment the creature releases from its siphon when it is alarmed. The word for it in both Greek and Latin, ''sepia'', is now used to refer to a brown pigment in English. ==Range and habitat== The family Sepiidae, which contains all cuttlefish, inhabit tropical/temperate ocean waters. They are mostly shallow-water animals, although they are known to go to depths of about .〔Lu, C. C. and Roper, C. F. E. (1991). "Aspects of the biology of ''Sepia cultrata'' from southeastern Australia", p. 192 in: La Seiche, The Cuttlefish. Boucaud-Camou, E. (Ed). Caen, France; Centre de Publications de l'Université de Caen.〕 They have an unusual biogeographic pattern: totally absent from the Americas, but present along the coasts of East and South Asia, Western Europe, and the Mediterranean, as well as all coasts of Africa and Australia. By the time the family evolved, ostensibly in the Old World, the North Atlantic possibly had become too cold and deep for these warm-water species to cross. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cuttlefish」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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