The word “cephalopod” has its origin in Greek and means as much as “head foot”. Consequently, the class cephalopods includes octopuses, squid, cuttlefish and nautiluses, which are all characterized by their arms/tentacles (“feet”) which are directly connected to their head. Since at least the movie “Finding Dory”, we all know again why cephalopods are such fascinating animals. Their ability to change their colors and body shape, “ink” production, three hearts,… . Moreover they are found “in all oceans of the world, from the tropics to the poles, the intertidal to the abyss.” (http://www.thecephalopodpage.org) So, of course, they also exist in the nort-western Mediterranean and Roger Villanueva published a paper in 1992 in which he looked at the distribution of cephalpalopods in the bathybenthic zone (700-2000m) of the nort-western Mediterranean. He mainly found the octopus Bathypolypus sponsalis and the squid Neorossia caroli. In both species, young and small individuals could be found in a wider range of depths as old and large individuals. The large individuals are nearer to the surface while the small individuals can also be found in larger depths. So if you are afraid of meeting large cephalopods while diving, you have to dive deeper. "Deep-sea cephalopods of the north-western Mediterranean: Indications of up-slope ontogenetic migration in two bathybenthic species."
Roger Villanueva Journal of Zoology 227.2 (1992): 267-276.
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