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Do you believe in aliens? If you said ‘no’ are you prepared to change your mind if presented with persuasive evidence? Because until I saw this video of a cuttlefish mimicking a human face I was a non-believer but now I’m not so sure.
I first stumbled across this clip about three months ago when it first went viral on TikTok. Since then, I have seen the clip no less than 10 more times posted across various accounts and on Reddit and each time someone is asking ‘is this real???’
In the age of videos created by artificial intelligence it really can be difficult to tell if a video is real or not. But this is legit. Cuttlefish are just this weird. They’re arguably the weirdest fish in the sea.
Cuttlefish Mimics Human Face, Haunts My Dreams
After you watch the clip, I’ll at least tell you all what I think is going on here. But let’s at least set the stage. There is an aquarium with a cuttlefish in it, someone has a delicious sardine, and the creature approaches which activating camouflage. Now check it out:
@meowmeowgravy Cuttlefish are aliens, creepy cool aliens. #merica #cuttlefish #water
If, like me, your first thought was ‘that’s an alien’ then you can take solace in knowing you’re not alone.
For starters, there are 116 known species of cuttlefish and likely more undiscovered species out there. They are widely believed by marine biologists to be among the most intelligent invertebrates in the animal kingdom.
Also, that is not the only alarming cuttlefish clip in recent months. This one went viral as well:
@unilad Cute and terrifying!! 😲🦑 🎥: IG / sunege100 #UNILAD #animals #pets #squid #scary #attack #terrifying #adorable #friends
What I Think…
There’s a phenomenon called ‘Pareidolia‘ where humans tend to “impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus” when there isn’t any at all.
So while we might be seeing what looks like a human face here, it could be as simple as the cuttlefish in an aquarium mimicking sand or coral or activating camouflaging colors. The pattern which we perceive as a human face might simply be our brains trying to attribute meaning that does not exist.
With that in mind, I’m still half-convinced this is an alien species. But that’s just my two cents.