The difference between octopus and cuttlefish

We usually call octopus octopus because it has eight claws, which is a particularly obvious feature. If octopus and cuttlefish were served on the table at the same time, I believe most people would not be able to tell them apart. They are both mollusks, but their living habits are different, while their nutritional values are roughly the same. So what are the differences between them? Today I will tell you about the differences between cuttlefish and octopus.

Octopus belongs to the order Octopoda, class Cephalopoda, phylum Mollusca. It has eight tentacles, commonly known as octopus, has suction cups, can spray ink, and has a not very big body, but very long tentacles. Cuttlefish belongs to the order Sepiidae of the class Cephalopoda of the phylum Mollusca. It is commonly known as cuttlefish or cuttlefish. It has a thick calcareous inner shell, eight short arms and two long tentacles. The body of an octopus is spherical; the body of a squid is flatter and wider. Octopuses move very slowly; squids can swim very fast in the sea. Octopuses prefer darkness; squids prefer light.

Octopus sashimi, squid shreds, and cuttlefish chicken soup are all delicacies that are popular among food lovers. However, if you only look at the pictures of the actual creatures, they all have big eyes and soft tentacles. It is estimated that most food lovers cannot call out their names. In addition, these three marine creatures have many nicknames, such as squid, calamari, cuttlefish, octopus, etc., which is inevitably dazzling and makes people wonder what kind of fish this is. In the spirit of serious foodies, let’s break down the differences between these three delicious ingredients. First of all, judging from the names, octopus's nickname is octopus, squid's nickname is calamari, and cuttlefish's nickname is cuttlefish, squid... well, this point doesn't seem to make any sense in distinguishing them, so let's skip it. Secondly, from the perspective of biological taxonomy, octopus, squid and cuttlefish all belong to the phylum Mollusca - class Cephalopoda. The biggest characteristic of cephalopods is that their feet are born on the head, which are manifested as funnel and tentacles (which we usually call tentacles). Among them, octopus belongs to the Octopoda of cephalopoda, and squid and cuttlefish belong to the Decapoda of cephalopoda. In other words, by counting the number of tentacles, you can roughly distinguish the octopus from the following two cephalopod brothers.

Finally, from the appearance, the bodies of octopus, squid and cuttlefish can be divided into three parts: head, foot and mantle. The mantle of octopus is spherical, that of squid is conical, and that of cuttlefish is bag-shaped. Squid is more slender than cuttlefish, and the end of its mantle is like the tip of a javelin, so it is called cuttlefish. If you still can't tell the difference between squid and cuttlefish, you can try pressing the middle part of their bodies. The soft one is squid, and the harder one is cuttlefish. This is because the inner shell of squid is keratinous and relatively thin, while the inner shell of cuttlefish is made of calcareous material. As for the octopus, its inner shell has completely degenerated, so it has superb "shrinking" skills.

<<: The difference between cuttlefish and squid

>>: The difference between octopus, cuttlefish, squid and squid