Cephalopod behaviour

Abstract

Underlying all animal behaviors, from the simplest reflexive reactions to the more complex cognitive reasoning and social interaction, are nervous systems uniquely adapted to bodies, environments, and challenges of different animal species. Coleoid cephalopods - octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish - are widely recognized as the most behaviorally complex invertebrates and provide exciting opportunities for studying the neural control of behaviour. These unusual molluscs evolved over 400 million years ago from slow-moving armored forms to active predators of coastal and open ocean ecosystems. In this primer we will discuss how, during cephalopod evolution, the relatively simple ganglion-based molluscan nervous system has been extensively transformed to control the complex bodies and process extensive visual, tactile, and chemical sensory inputs, and summarize some recent findings about their fascinating behaviors.