Bizarre Love Triangle of the Giant Cuttlefish

By Kevin Zelnio, on October 20th, 2011 5 comments   Adaptations, Cephalopods, Ecology, Mating & Reproduction   BBC, cuttlefish, David Attenborough  

5 comments to Bizarre Love Triangle of the Giant Cuttlefish

• para_sight

  October 20, 2011 at 17:27 · Reply

  They’re sea cuttles mate, sea cuttles…

  • Aeolius

    October 20, 2011 at 21:49 · Reply

    flippercanorious little sausages…

• jebyrnes

  October 20, 2011 at 20:34 · Reply

  Blah blah blah. Anthropomorphize anthropomorphize anthropomorphize. Maybe sea cuttles (teehee) are just into that. I mean, you know, maybe they’re bros, and he’s just tryin’ to help out his little friend who otherwise has no luck with the ladies. Cuttlefish wing-man, anyone? It’s equally plausible, if you’re going to jump on the anthropomorphizing bandwagon.

  (and if you want me to get all Roughgardian, I’d say this is an incomplete story – we need to know what other benefits that having the little dude around does for both the male, female, and fitness of their offspring. This whole ‘sneaker’ thing is a data-less supposition of our gendered values on the whole thing. Unless you have real data on cost with no benefit, which I’d find interesting, not to mention unlikely – once the ability to recognize a ‘sneaker’ evolves, that strategy is shut down.)

  Need I remind you, this is territory I’ve covered before. I’m guessing some re-dubbing of this video could tell a very different and equally plausible story.

  • jebyrnes

    October 20, 2011 at 20:38 · Reply

    p.s. I don’t know this literature at all. I’m just raising some points about cultural filters of sexual selection. If this has been worked out and cost to the larger male without a benefit of any sort has been shown, I’d love to hear the definitive story. In the mean time, Scott Richmond should be proud!

• John Bruno

  October 21, 2011 at 10:40 · Reply

  Wow! Smack down by the Penis Fencing chordate jebyrnes! Cock-blocking in the ocean-critter-o-sphere? You make the call. Can’t wait for the Z man’s reply.