V^vstpry^ 



ttlefish from the Jurassic Age, 170 million 

 animal's own fossil ink, and we have 

 1 idea of the original color. The drawing 

 ibruary. 



probably the same color now as it was 

 cephalopod used it to befuddle 

 3d Bavaria. 



ators, while the real cuttlefish gets safely away. 



There is speculation that the melanin ink may also have 

 an anesthetizing effect on the olfactory nerves of the cuttle- 

 fish's predator. The decoying ink, and its possible anesthe- 

 tizing qualities, have proved extraordinarily successful as 

 adaptations go; cuttlefish and squid are abundant through- 

 out most of the salt water on the Earth. 



Melanin is an organic compound and almost all such 

 compounds decay. Until recently, scientists did not attempt 

 to recover organic materials from fossils, but now it is known 

 that such chemicals can indeed be recovered. Experiments 

 have been done on shells more than 100 million years old, 

 and the amino acids of the original proteins are found to 

 correspond to those composing the protein in shells of living 

 species. Amino acids have been been found in fossils with 

 an age as great as 300 million years. 



Preservation of organic material requires protection from 

 attack by oxygen and bacteria. If the body of an animal is 

 deposited on a quiet lake or ocean bottom with little cur- 

 rent and an abundance of organic material already present, 

 then the water may be acid enough to prevent both oxida- 

 tion and bacterial growth. Cuttlefish are not exceptions. 

 The inksacs of fresh cuttlefish decay readily and must be 

 dried quickly if they are to be preserved. The Geoteuthis 

 specimen must have fallen in a place where conditions were 

 optimal since the organic inksac was preserved. 



At one time, most of the dark brown and black inks used 

 in writing and drawing came from cuttlefish. Cicero wrote 

 his Orations and other works in sepia, the Roman name for 

 cuttlefish and now the name for brown ink. 



Cuttlefish ink, like Geoteuthis, eventually lost out in the 

 struggle for survival. Although sepia is quite permanent 

 in the dark, prolonged exposure to sunlight fades it. A 

 longer-lasting ink can be made from lampblack, and there- 

 fore the market for cuttlefish ink is much reduced today 

 from its popularity of the last century. Nevertheless, sepia 

 is still prepared and sold in England. 



Cuttlefish themselves still have great commercial value. 



Fossil Geoteuthis. The inksac is clearly visibU in black, and the 

 outline of the internal skeleton of the squid is somewhat less distinct. 



especially in the Far East and Mediterranean countries. 

 Italians, following their Roman forebears, dry and sell the 

 sacs for ink, eat the flesh and use the cuttlebones for pumice 

 and bird feed. 



While "Project Cuttlefish" continued its research, find- 

 ing that melanin is a protein attached to a complex carbon 

 molecule of unknown structure, Mr. Lucchesi finished the 

 drawing. Everyone was surprised at the result. The 170- 

 million-year-old ink had flowed as smoothly and beaiuifully 

 as the best modern ink. The most startling aspect of the 

 drawing was the warm brown color of the ink, the true color 

 of fresh cuttlefish ink. 



The first man to make ink from fossil specimens was 

 Dean William Buckland, who was describing Geoteuthis for 

 the geology and mineralogy volume of The Bndgewater Trea- 

 tises. The year was 1849, and artists still made regular use 

 of a pigment prepared from cuttlefish for brown tones. 

 Buckland chipped off some fossil ink from a specimen, had 

 it prepared, and handed it over to his artist as a medium 

 for the Geoteuthis illustration. The quality of that ink was 

 excellent, too, according to Henry Lee's report of the inci- 

 dent in his 1875 classic The Octopus. 



Fortunately for the safety of museum collections of fossil 

 sepia, the use of fossil ink did not continue in vogue. As far 

 as we can determine, Field Museum's "Cuttlefish Project" 

 is the first in 118 years to prepare a drawing of the fossil 

 cuttlefish Geoteuthis iro\\\ its own ink. C'onsequently, accord- 

 ing to caiuious extrapolations, not until the year 2085 will 

 the cuttlefish be so immortalized again. 



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