Roger Hanlon

Hm, ok- nothing more intimidating than being the first written review of a book...!

Octopus, Squid, and Cuttlefish is like a more approachable version of [b:Octopus: The Ocean's Intelligent Invertebrate|7367893|Octopus The Ocean's Intelligent Invertebrate|Jennifer A. Mather|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1404579959s/7367893.jpg|9175590] with considerably more pictures and slightly less technicality. Unlike Octopus, the plethora of photographs keeps this from getting too dry, though the authors do note that many of the marvelous skin/chromatophore/idiophore changes are best seen in motion i.e. film. All three authors are researchers in the field (I've seen their work mentioned on cephalopod things over the years), and take care to mention when some conclusions aren't fully accepted by the community (for example, whether or not octopus 'play')

The book is divided into chapters by broad topic: Phylogeny & Evolution of cephalopods; Lifestyles including reproduction, development, movement, and biome; Behavior, Cognition & Intelligence on some of the ways we evaluate how smart they are; and Cephalopods & Humans on our interactions (fisheries, biomedical, inspiration). At the end of each chapter there are 6-9 profiles on different cephalopods, and it's a nice variety between octopods, squids, nautiluses, cuttlefish, and the sepiiids (as well as the Vampire, alone in its family group).… (altro)