As they hunt, these marine predators send waves of color across their skin. The rainbow display stops prey in their tracks, granting the cuttlefish just enough time to shoot out two specialized hunting tentacles at lightning speed and snatch them into range of their deadly beaks.
Experts told Live Science that cuttlefish are ingenious hunters, but that there's likely an even more mysterious process than hunter to prey hypnosis going down on the seafloor.
A calculated hunter
"The cuttlefish will slowly approach the prey so as to not alert the unsuspecting shrimp, fish or crab," Grasse told Live Science in an email.
Some may wonder whether this trick can mesmerize prey, but scientists don't think that's the case.
And while some animals, such as chickens, can be induced into trance-like conditions of tonic immobility, an involuntary, temporary state of unresponsiveness that happens when humans or animals experience extreme trauma, it's unlikely that the cuttlefish's color changes "hypnotize" their prey, Connor Gibbons, the cephalopod facility manager at Columbia University told Live Science. Instead, some researchers believe that the color show serves as an ingenious disguise.
"It's only part of something looming at them, which they're like, 'I don't know if you are a predator? Are you just passing waves? What are you?'" Gibbons said. "And then by that time, it's too late."
A cuttlefish uses its tentacles to capture a shrimp (Image credit: Oxford Scientific Films via Getty Images)"The closest thing I can compare it to is the tongue of a chameleon extending out to grab an unsuspecting insect," Grasse said. "Cuttlefish feeding tentacles will fire out in the blink of an eye before the prey can react and escape."
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"Essentially, they are trying their best not to alarm the prey to their presence," he said. By breaking up the size of their bodies, cuttlefish can convince their prey they're not as large or alarming as they may seem.
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