Cuttlefish Memory | WTTW Chicago News with Neil Shubin

Common Cuttlefish in tanks in the Roger Hanlon Lab. Credit Dee Sullivan

University of Chicago Professor , a science commentator for WTTW in Chicago, discusses the remarkable memory capacity of cuttlefish, a discovery recently reported by former Grass Fellow Alex Schnell and 's Roger Hanlon. The segment starts at 2:00.

An international research team has found that .

“Cuttlefish can remember what they ate, where and when, and use this to guide their feeding decisions in the future. What’s surprising is that they don’t lose this ability with age, despite showing other signs of ageing such as loss of muscle function and appetite,” said first author  of the University of Cambridge’s Department of Psychology, who conducted the experiments at In Woods Hole, Mass in collaboration with Senior Scientist Roger Hanlon.

Male cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) displaying zebra stripe while guarding a female mate.
Male cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) displaying zebra stripe while guarding a female mate. Credit: Roger Hanlon

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