Reposted by Arata NakayamaJournal of Experimental Biology @jexpbiol.bsky.social · 19/05/2026Cuttlefish use polarised light to make their arms appear banded, but if their arms get too large the bands start to disappear. Recently Nakayama &co showed that the animal's arms stop growing at the ideal size, even though the rest of it gets bigger doi.org/10.1242/jeb.... 1132
Reposted by Arata NakayamaProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences @pnas.org · 04/02/2026Your average female Doratosepion andreanum cuttlefish finds nothing more alluring than the long, extended arms of a male cuttlefish aglow with elaborate patterns made of horizontally and vertically polarized light. In PNAS: ow.ly/iJYh50Y8lug 0152
Reposted by Arata NakayamaSensory Ecology Lab @sensoryecology.bsky.social · 27/01/2026“Male Andrea cuttlefish (Doratosepion andreanum) – quite drab to human eyes – use their birefringent arms to literally twist light, creating a highly conspicuous signal precisely tuned to cuttlefish vision.” #scicomm www.sciencealert.com/cuttlefish-l... 🧪 🐙 🦑sciencealert.comCuttlefish Literally Twist Light to Attract a Mate, Study FindsEvery critter on this planet that relies on a sexual means of reproduction has its own way of luring in a mate – but cuttlefish can do something really special. 16419
Arata Nakayama @arata-nakayama.bsky.social · 27/01/2026Our paper is out from @pnas.org ! We found that cuttlefish use transparent muscle to produce polarized courtship signal. Birefringence property of muscle makes the transmitted light highly conspicuous for cuttlefish polarization vision. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 031