Marine biology -- Great Britain; Seashore; Seashore biology
In the same manner we may secure various species of the Decapods or
Ten-footed Cephalopods, which comprise the Calamaries, Squids, and
Cuttlefishes. These, too, properly speaking, have but eight arms, the
other two appendages being really tentacles, which are usually longer
than the arms, and more or less retractile; they are also expanded at
the ends. The decapods are also to be distinguished from the octopods
by their elongated bodies, and a flattened, fin-like appendage on either
side. Their eyes, also, are capable of being rotated within the orbits,
while those of the octopods are fixed; and the shell consists of one or
more horny ‘pens,’ or of a calcareous ‘bone,’ contained in a cavity so
loosely that it drops out of its place when the cavity is opened.
[Illustration: FIG. 184.--_Loligo vulgaris_ AND ITS PEN]
[Illustration: FIG. 185.--_Sepiola atlantica_]
The Common Calamary (_Loligo vulgaris_) may be recognised by the
accompanying illustration, from which it will be observed that the body
tapers behind, bearing two rhomboidal fins in the rear. The suckers are
arranged in two rows on the arms, but in fours on the expanded tips of
the tentacles. The animal is a good swimmer, and sometimes crawls, head
downwards, on the disc surrounding the mouth, pulling itself along by
means of its arms. Its shell is a horny pen, lanceolate in form, but it
divides as the age of the animal advances, so that two or more may be
found in the same specimen.
Belonging to the same family we have the Common Squid (_Sepiola
atlantica_), also a very abundant species. Here the body is shorter and
purse-like, and the fins are dorsal and rounded. It seldom exceeds four
or five inches in length, and, like the Calamary, is used largely as a
bait by fishermen.
Another family--the _Sepiadæ_--contains the Cuttlefish (_Sepia
officinalis_), the ‘bone’ of which is such a common object on the beach.
This latter is a broad, curved plate of carbonate of lime, made up of a
number of regular layers, and having a cavity hollowed out at the
posterior end. It is exceedingly light and porous in structure, and at
one time was used largely as an antacid as well as a dentifrice. It is
also proportionately large, being both as long and as broad as the body
of the animal.
[Illustration: FIG. 186.--_Sepia officinalis_ AND ITS ‘BONE’]
Cuttlefishes live principally in the shallow water close to shore, where
they swim backwards by the sudden propulsion of water from their
siphons; and their eggs, which look like clusters of black grapes, are
frequently thrown up on the beach, generally attached to the stems and
fronds of sea weeds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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