What has three hearts, eight arms, wavy pupils, a donut-shaped brain and can camouflage as quickly as you can blink?

Unless you’re a huge fan of marine animals, there’s a good chance that you know very little about cuttlefish.

Sadly, this incredibly intelligent creature is better known to most as a food than as a beautiful, color-changing cephalopod.

But did you know that these sea creatures can reach up to a meter in length, and can weigh up to 16 kilograms, according to a recent article from BBC Wildlife.

There’s a lot of things that make these enigmatic creatures special, including their wild courtship displays in which the males simultaneously look ultra dashing to potential mates, whilst pretending to be aggressive to other cuttlefish, as the article explains:

“Cuttlefish have some of the most impressive courtship routines in nature. Big males adopt a striking zebra-stripe pattern on one side of their body to ward off rivals, while simultaneously displaying an attractive mottled pattern to a female on the other – quite a feat. But what if you’re not a large male able to scare off competitors? Some little ’uns ingeniously turn a dappled colour, round out their body shape and act very demure, exactly like a female.”

It’s an odd tactic to say the least, but its understandable that they’re keen romantics – after all, they have triple the hearts we have, and humans are also known for their odd courtship displays. Imagine how much worse we could be?

If you’re not won over by the incredible creature already, perhaps the knowledge that they can dream will change things for you? Perhaps, while their three hearts beat, they’re dreaming of the perfect Valentine’s getaway with the woman of their dreams.

But there’s one elephant in the room when it comes to the cuttlefish. What is with their eyes?

Cuttlefish have wavy-shaped pupils, unlike anything else that many of us have ever seen. And according to a 2012 research paper, there’s good reason for this, with the authors explaining that the unusual pupils (which can expand to be circular in low light) helps the cuttlefish account for the bright light at the surface and the darkness at the depths of the shallow waters in which they live:

“Computation of a retinal illumination map shows that the pronounced vertical intensity gradient (i.e., brighter above; dimmer below) of a typical cuttlefish habitat scene becomes less pronounced when seen by an eye with a W-shaped pupil. That is, the visual field appears more even. Furthermore, under intense directional illumination (i.e., from the sun), light scattering in the lens or ocular media can severely degrade contrast sensitivity in dimmer parts of the scene.”

Sure they’re weird – but their incredible adaptations make cuttlefish all the more wonderful.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about the mysterious “pyramids” discovered in Antarctica. What are they?