This Animal Hides Using—& Is Kept Up by—Its Own Glowing Head
by David Shultz
Mar 28, 2014
3 minutes
Light draws attention. Spotlights tell us what’s important on stage or illuminate an escaping criminal. The glow from a smartphone in a movie theater quickly exposes the impropriety of its owner. Light reveals things hidden in the darkness. Usually.
The Hawaiian bobtail squid () has adopted a camouflage strategy that turns the classical tropes of light and darkness upside down. The palm-sized mollusks are nocturnal, inhabiting shallow coastal waters around the globe, where they forage for shrimp in the cover
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