# From the archive: The cuttlefish and its coat of many colors

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/many-minds-510509/from-the-archive-the-cuttlefish-and-its-coat-of-many-colors
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/many-minds-510509/from-the-archive-the-cuttlefish-and-its-coat-of-many-colors.md
Podcast: [Many Minds](https://stenobird.com/podcast/many-minds-510509)
Published: 2026-04-22T22:12:00+00:00
Episode link: https://manyminds.libsyn.com/from-the-archive-the-cuttlefish-and-its-coat-of-many-colors
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/manyminds/The-cuttlefish-and-its-coat-of-many-colors_REPEAT.mp3?dest-id=1868261
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/many-minds-510509/episodes/from-the-archive-the-cuttlefish-and-its-coat-of-many-colors
Duration seconds: 5618

## Resource

Hi friends! We're skipping a beat to take care of some spring housekeeping tasks. We will be back in May! In the meanwhile, enjoy this listener favorite from our archives! ----- [originally aired April 30, 2025] We humans have a hard time becoming invisible. For better or worse, we're basically stuck with the skin and body we have; we're pretty fixed in our color, our shape, our overall appearance. And so we're fascinated by creatures that aren't —creatures that morph to meet the moment, that can functionally disappear, that can shape-shift on a dime. And no creatures are more skilled, more astonishing, more bedazzling in their abilities to do this kind of thing than the cephalopods. But how do they do this exactly? What's going on in their skin? What's going on under their skin? And what's going on in their brains that makes this all possible? My guest today is Dr. Tessa Montague . Tessa is a neuroscientist in the Axel Lab at Columbia University; she studies the brain and behavior of the dwarf cuttlefish, with a special focus on the biology of their dynamic skin behaviors. Here, Tessa and I talk about how cuttlefish and other cephalopods exhibit the most impressive camouflaging abilities on the planet. We discuss how they change their skin's appearance with remarkable speed and fidelity—and not just when trying to blend in, but also when hunting, courting, fighting, and more. We talk about whether these behaviors are flexible and whether they're voluntary. We linger on the cruel irony that cuttlefish seem to be colorblind. We talk about the idea that a cephalopod's skin is kind of a window into their brain. We lay out the cells and organs in the cephalopod skin the make these behaviors possible—especially the tiny pigment-bearing structures called "chromatophores." An…

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