J. R. Soc. Interface 16, 20190175 (2019)

Cuttlefish are unique among their present-day cephalopodic peers in that their shell comprises chambers supported internally by a labyrinth of pillars. An imaging analysis conducted by Charles Le Pabic and co-workers now suggests that the early development of this structure is optimized to offer the organism both robustness and buoyancy.

The authors used CAT-scan images to examine the way that the chamber dimensions and the properties of the pillar network varied across the embryonic, juvenile and adult stages of a cuttlefish’s life. They found that the internal structure evolved from a set of isolated pillars to a complex network, becoming fully connected just weeks before the organism embarked on an autumnal migration through deep waters.

This timely completion cements the network’s established role in withstanding hydrostatic pressure. But the authors’ measurement of a concomitant increase in network tortuosity also hints at a mechanism for buoyancy regulation, which is known to be governed by the distribution of liquid within the chambers.