[Featured]: Strange patterning in Sepia cuttlebone

[Phil]

We were down at Shakespeare Beach at Dover, UK, yesterday and found the beach was littered with hundreds of cuttlebones - Sepia officinalis That's quite normal for the time of year.

What was intriguing was this specimen. It had discoloration in bands. Would anyone know what would cause this? We are baffled.

Thank you.

 

[tonmo]

that is wild, @Phil! I wonder, if like in a tree, as the cuttlefish grows, maybe these are "rings" of sorts which reveal some kind event or something... also, isn't that a very BIG cuttlebone??

 

[Phil]

 

[Phil]

Yes, I think this species doesn't get much bigger. Speaking with people much wiser than me this morning, the concensus seems to be it's trauma or an environmental factor. If we can find others, it leans towards the environment. I'll see if I can find some more this afternoon.

(Dear Terri for scale).

 

[tonmo]

Great! If you find any matches, that could suggest something interesting happened...

 

[gjbarord]

We were down at Shakespeare Beach at Dover, UK, yesterday and found the beach was littered with hundreds of cuttlebones - Sepia officinalis That's quite normal for the time of year.

What was intriguing was this specimen. It had discoloration in bands. Would anyone know what would cause this? We are baffled.

Thank you.

Very interesting! I worked on a project years ago with some other colleagues analyzing the black lines in cuttlebones from dead cuttlefish in captivity to determine if there was a way to match up the black lines (i.e., trauma scars) to activities in the aquarium, like water quality issues, stress, etc. We did not move forward with more analyses in aquariums, but maybe it is time to get back into it... Cuttlebones have the potential to tell us a lot about the cuttlefish's life, if we can interpret it correctly!

Greg