Talk:Sepioloidea lineolata

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poisonous?[edit]

Together with the blue-ringed octopus and Pfeffer's flamboyant cuttlefish, S. lineolata is one of the few cephalopods that are known to be poisonous.

I find that dubious. Leaving the BRO aside, the sources I've seen indicated it was not known whether these two cuttlefish similarly are poisonous or not. Instead, and in the absence of any direct evidence, it simply appears to be the case that some biologists have prudently cautioned that these cuttlefish MAY be poisonous, using the argument that maybe the striking colouration is to warn off predators (as is common for poisonous animals). But that isn't the only possibility (counter-example: zebra). e.g. the pyjama pattern also could simply help camouflage it when half submerged in sand and shell fragments.

Can anyone cite any information on this matter? (Other than [1]?) Cesiumfrog (talk) 03:22, 7 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

watch this!

it's queued up the part where someone from a lab confirms. (though i recommend watching the entire doc.) &asmp;Sensorsweep (talk) 05:17, 15 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

if that link doesn't work.. (wikipedia has a problem with youtube links sometimes?) the doc is Kings of Camouflage, from NOVA (pbs).. and the pertinent bit is at 48:25 &asmp;Sensorsweep (talk) 05:19, 15 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, that's a really interesting lead. So over the last half-dozen years this (cephalopod toxiticy) is an active (and funded) area of research: Norman at Museum Victoria [2] and Strugnell at La Trobe [3] are both focused on the evolution, while novel pharmaceuticals are being sought at UQ-IMB [4]. Unfortunately the 2007 mention (transcript: [5]) lacks detail, there is no source suggested for the statement about pyjama dumplings, no explanation (is it poisonous only to eat certain parts or to be bitten by it or to expose skin near it, and if poisonous then to what, and with what effects?), I'm reading conflicting accounts of whether it is rare or common for octopus to use poison, etc. Hopefully some detail has been published in the academic literature? Cesiumfrog (talk) 13:58, 15 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

At the gov's Species Bank (useful source for this article), Norman wrote "The dramatic colour pattern of this squid is probably advertising a poisonous nature.", which is obviously far more tentative than what he appeared to be telling the doco. Cesiumfrog (talk) 00:10, 16 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Also, while he (in the doco) affirmed the notion of only three known poisonous cephalopods (which seems curious as there's plenty similar dramatically-coloured cephalopods e.g. wunderpus, mimic octopus, giant cuttlefish, common cuttlefish...), in 2009 his collaborator announced that all octopus and cuttlefish are venomous [6]; supposedly envenomation by a variety of species (which?) has been observed (how?).[7] Cesiumfrog (talk) 00:31, 17 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]