Sepia officinalis
Linnaeus, 1758 · speciesAt a glance
Sources14 archives
Databases and archives Sepia officinalis's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation14 languages↗
Animal Diversity WebUniv. of Michigan MZspecies account↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility26 850 records↗
OBISOcean Biodiversity Information System19 636 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI403 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics421 specimens↗
NPASSNat. Product Activity & Species Sourcecompounds↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinegenome & karyotype↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
Catalogue of LifeCOLtaxonomy↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
Common cuttlefish The common cuttlefish or European common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) is one of the largest and best-known cuttlefish species. They are a migratory species that spend the summer and spring inshore for spawning and then move to depths of 100 to 200m during autumn and winter. They grow to 49 cm in mantle length (ML) and 4 kg in weight.Reid, A., P. Jereb, & C.F.E. Roper 2005. Family Sepiidae. In: P. Jereb & C.F.E. Roper, eds. Cephalopods of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of species known to date. Volume 1. Chambered nautiluses and sepioids (Nautilidae, Sepiidae, Sepiolidae, Sepiadariidae, Idiosepiidae and Spirulidae). FAO Species Catalogue for Fishery Purposes. No. 4, Vol. 1. Rome, FAO. pp. 57–152. Animals from subtropical seas are smaller and rarely exceed 30 cm in ML.Roper C.F.E., M.J. Sweeney & C.E. Nauen 1984. Cephalopods of the world. Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy. Vol. 3, p. 277. The common cuttlefish is native to at least the Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, and Baltic Sea, although subspecies have been proposed as far south as South Africa. It lives on sand and mud seabeds and it can tolerate brackish water conditions.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology2
Habitat & environment2
Uses & economy1
Other traits3
Compounds documented for Sepia officinalis across natural-product and food-composition databases — not just the ~150 nutrients on a classic label ("nutritional dark matter").
Compound class profile5 classes
Documented compounds81 total
| Compound | Class | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| (2e)-7-Phenylhepta-2-en-4,6-diyn-1-yl acetate | present | NPASS | |
| (2R)-7-phenylhepta-4,6-diyne-1,2-diol | present | NPASS | |
| (2R,3S,4S,5R,6R)-2-(hydroxymethyl)-6-[(2R)-1-hydroxytrideca-5,7,9,11-tetrayn-2-yl]oxyoxane-3,4,5-triol | present | NPASS | |
| (2R,3S,4S,5R,6R)-2-(hydroxymethyl)-6-[(E,2R)-1-hydroxytridec-5-en-7,9,11-triyn-2-yl]oxyoxane-3,4,5-triol | present | NPASS | |
| (2R,3S,4S,5R,6R)-2-(hydroxymethyl)-6-[(E,3R)-1-hydroxytetradec-6-en-8,10,12-triyn-3-yl]oxyoxane-3,4,5-triol | present | NPASS | |
| (2R,3S,4S,5R,6R)-2-(hydroxymethyl)-6-[(E,3S)-3-hydroxytetradec-6-en-8,10,12-triynoxy]oxane-3,4,5-triol | present | NPASS | |
| (2R,3S,4S,5R,6R)-2-(hydroxymethyl)-6-[[5-(2-phenylethynyl)thiophen-2-yl]methoxy]oxane-3,4,5-triol | present | NPASS | |
| (2S)-7-phenylhepta-4,6-diyn-2-ol | present | NPASS | |
| (2S,8E,10S,11S)-trideca-8,12-dien-4,6-diyne-2,10,11-triol | present | NPASS | |
| (2Z)-2-[(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)methylidene]-6-hydroxy-7-[(2S,3R,4S,5S,6R)-3,4,5-trihydroxy-6-(hydroxymethyl)oxan-2-yl]oxy-1-benzofuran-3-one | present | NPASS |
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Sepia officinalis has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
Besides the big genome in the nucleus, cells carry a small, circular loop of DNA inside the cell's energy factories — the mitochondria. It is inherited almost only from the mother and is a leftover from ancient bacteria that moved into the cell. The mitochondrial markers above (ND*, COX, CYTB…) are read from exactly this loop. Outer ring = one strand, inner ring = the other.
The complete instruction manual Sepia officinalis carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Genome sizehow big the whole instruction manual is
Measured in base pairs (bp) — the individual letters of DNA (human ≈ 3.2 Gb, a bacterium a few million). The chart places this genome on a logarithmic scale — each step to the right is ten times bigger — among reference organisms. Across species a bigger genome loosely tracks with larger cells, slower growth and lower-energy lifestyles (powered flight favours small genomes) — yet it does not imply more genes or a more advanced organism (the long-standing C-value paradox).
Sequencing statusassembly quality — how far to trust these numbers
Assembly level tells you how finished the sequence is — from fragmented contigs, through scaffolds, up to a full chromosome-level assembly. BUSCO % estimates completeness: the share of genes expected to be present that were actually found. These describe the data quality, not the organism.
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard periods (Jurassic, Cretaceous…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. The dashed rules marked ✦ are the five great mass extinctions. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
Record type46 486 records
Origin
Range
Depth
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions12 of 36 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientalelocation not on record | 478 |
| Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO)location not on record | 276 |
| National Marine Biodiversity Institute of Korealocation not on record | 75 |
| Natural History Museum Rotterdamlocation not on record | 62 |
| ICATMARlocation not on record | 41 |
| DASSHlocation not on record | 16 |
| Washington, US | 15 |
| Cambridge, US | 13 |
| VLIZ | ILVOlocation not on record | 7 |
| PNHSlocation not on record | 7 |
| Provincia di Livornolocation not on record | 6 |
| UM-RSMASlocation not on record | 5 |
| Santa Barbara Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 4 |
| IEO-COMA-CSIClocation not on record | 4 |
| Barcelona, ES | 3 |
| Stockholm, SE | 3 |
| Philadelphia, US | 3 |
| Denver, US | 3 |
| Brussels, BE | 3 |
| South Kensington, GB | 2 |
| Tromsø, NO | 2 |
| Chongqing Museumlocation not on record | 2 |
| Frankfurt am Main | 2 |
| RBINS-Scientific Heritagelocation not on record | 2 |
| Vlaams Instituut voor de Zeelocation not on record | 1 |
| ELMClocation not on record | 1 |
| CLOlocation not on record | 1 |
| Delaware Museum of Nature and Sciencelocation not on record | 1 |
| Natural History Museum, Londonlocation not on record | 1 |
| PUC-RSlocation not on record | 1 |
| BioFokuslocation not on record | 1 |
| Natural History Museum of Utahlocation not on record | 1 |
| Paris, FR | 1 |
| Chicago, US | 1 |
| RWSlocation not on record | 1 |
| NTNU-VMlocation not on record | 1 |
Where the DNA of Sepia officinalis was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.