We often conflate the cuttlefish’s ability to morph with camouflage, assuming they only use it to hide. Nature documentaries call cuttlefish the masters of disguise. This strikes me as the least interesting thing about the cuttlefish, not just because of the dreariness of the backgrounds they most often blend into but also because camouflage is a body language deployed against predators and others that would harm or devour you. Reading a creature through its camouflage seems a misguided attempt to understand its true nature, its whole self. It would be like studying a zebra while it flees from
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