Greetings from the newest addition to our Tentacles exhibit—a cadre of juvenile stumpy-spined cuttlefish! These youngsters will grow into small but mighty hunters that blend in with their environment to ambush prey.
O. deletron, is a deep sea dwelling cephalopod and is under multiple scientific studies due to its handful of strange traits.
It is unique to the O. deletron to be (one of the?) only squid to have only eight arms and no tentacles. Babies (bottom left) lose their two tentacles as they mature. Light flashing photophores at the tips of the arms attract prey, and possibly mates. O. deletron is able to drop parts of its arms at will. The sharp “teeth” on its arms hook onto predators and prey. If needed, the squid can detach any arm at any length (unlike an octopus that drops the entire tentacle). Like a lizard tail, the arms grow back.
Also unusual among squid, the O. deletron sports a large penis. In the photos, o. deletron displays small white dots on near its mantle. These are sperm packets deposited by passing males. Since they are solitary and live in the deep sea, finding a mate is difficult. Whenever a male o. deletron meets another member of its species, it will deposit its sperm packets regardless of the gender of its companion.
