“The bigger complication is that they use their primary, mixed method of communication—skin pattern, texture, and coloration, which they employ in a simple way to warn one another off or express a feeling—for a lot of other things as well: camouflage, the confusion of predators, fight-or-flight responses, and so on. And because they are not producing light from their surface, but rather reflecting ambient light from the environment, the colors they are producing shift in different light conditions—so if the cuttlefish were using color to communicate, they may be saying, “Hey, Bob,” in bright
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