Cuttlefish wave their expressive arms in four distinctive dancelike signals—potentially letting them communicate visually and by vibration.
The “up” sign involves cuttlefish extending one pair of their arms upward as if swim dancing to the Bee Gees song “Stayin’ Alive” while twisting their other arms together in the middle. For the “side” sign, the animals bring all their arms to one side of their body or the other. The “roll” sign involves cuttlefish folding all their arms beneath their head (making their eyes bulge out), as if they are about to do a front flip. And the “crown” sign is rather like when a person puts the fingertips of both of their hands together to form a pyramid shape.
Cohen-Bodénès and Neri recorded cuttlefish signing in different contexts and played the videos back to other individual cuttlefish.
“We found that when they see [others] signing, the cuttlefish sign back,” Cohen-Bodénès says. “We don't think it’s a mimicking signal because when they sign back, they sometimes display different types of signs.” This suggests a possible communication signal, Neri adds.
Interesting post, less interesting conversation *up*, *crown*, *side*, *crown*, *crown*, *roll*
For all we know you just told a hilarious joke in cuttlefish
They're named for what they look like to us. Scientists don't seem to know the specific meaning it may have for cuttlefish or how that meaning could change with context. Also, it seems that the point is not the sign alone, but also the noise the sign makes when performed underwater.
O I just assumed they chose those words because are the most relevant to cuttlefish /s