The Big Brains That Give Cephalopods Such Sophisticated Camouflaging Capabilities

Renowned marine biologist Roger Hanlon gave a wonderful TED Talk during which he shared fascinating information about cephalopods, particularly about their big brains. Hanlon explains how the cephalopod brain differs from the human brain but is still incredibly mysterious to researchers. What they’ve observed is that these amazing sea creatures have a high level of cognitive processing and demonstrate their intelligence by incredible camouflaging capabilities.

Octopus, squid and cuttlefish — collectively known as cephalopods — have strange, massive, distributed brains. What do they do with all that neural power? Dive into the ocean with marine biologist Roger Hanlon, who shares astonishing footage of the camouflaging abilities of cephalopods, which can change their skin color and texture in a flash.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.