squid eggs

In early December, Jane and I found these strange jelly-like masses in shallow water on a sheltered beach. We thought that they may be the eggs of a cuttlefish. When we took a closer look at the eggs - staring back at us from each egg were two tiny black eyes.

I have attempted to show this in the second photograph below by putting a circle around a single egg. Sadly, I didn't get the lighting right so you will just have to believe us.

We collected a couple of eggs for transport back to Jane's school aquarium. Hopefully they will survive and hatch out in time. We have no idea how long this will take but hope to find out.

We also carefully opened one egg and studied the living embryo through a binocular microscope (also put this one in the aquarium).

squid eggs
the mass of squid eggs placed briefly
on the sand for this photograph
(click thumbnail for full image)

a close-up of a few squid eggs,
a single egg highlighted
in the circle
(click thumbnail for full image)

When I originally posted this information on the web, I still thought that the embryo was a cuttlefish. It was simply stunning - minute, but fully formed and even though it was transparent, the black eyes were clearly visible. Also visible were the first chromatophores - skin cells that are used by adult cephalopods to change colour.

After posting this entry under the title "cuttlefish eggs", Mark Rodrigue kindly emailed me to suggest that my identification may have been a little hasty and the eggs probably belonged to a squid. He was right. After hunting a few reference books (something I should have done at the start) I found that the eggs belonged to a squid, possibly Southern Calamari Squid Sepioteuthis australis.