For a long time, many cuttlefish scientists focused their research on the male cuttlefish—a historically common practice in many fields of science. Among the giant Australian cuttlefish, smaller males change the patterns of their body to appear female, allowing them to evade detection from the kingpin male cuttlefish while sneaking in to fertilize the kingpin’s female mate. A PBS nature documentary deemed this “a devious drag act,” while a story in Nature went so far as to call the cuttlefish a sneaker and a transvestite.
