Fieldtrips and Fieldtrip Classes

Phylum Mollusca
Class Cephalopoda

Cephalopods include octopuses, squid, cuttlefishes, nautilus, and others. They are all voracious and agile predators specialized for locomotion and often for camouflage. Many have completely lost their shells. Cephalopod means "head-foot," and the foot is modified into arms and tentacles, usually equipped with suckers that are used in capturing prey. Cephalopods have well developed eyes, and many possess chromatophores, special pigmented skin cells that allow them to change colors and patterns. Cephalopods swim by using a form of jet propulsion; they force water out of the mantle cavity through a funnel (which is a muscular tube formed by what remains of the foot).

Click on the links below to learn more about the cephalopods that are found in the intertidal of the Gulf of California. To go back to the Gallery of Marine Life, click here.

To take a practice quiz on the Class Cephalopoda, click here.