如果知道有更好的食物在等着，墨鱼可以克制自己不吃

Cephalopods such as octopuses and squids may demonstrate some impressive smarts, but the latest research on cuttlefish may just blow your mind.

章鱼和鱿鱼等头足类动物可能表现出一些令人印象深刻的智慧，但对墨鱼的最新研究可能会让你大吃一惊。

Researchers have found that cuttlefish fed to a schedule will very quickly cut back on eating less enticing food, so they can gorge themselves on their favourite later on.

研究人员发现，按照时间表进食的墨鱼会很快减少进食不那么诱人的食物，留好肚子享受之后的大餐。

This means that not only are cuttlefish seemingly able to memorise the feeding schedule, they're incorporating that schedule into future planning, and then exercising self-control to make the most of their favourite food (shrimp, yum).

这意味着墨鱼不仅能记住进食时间表，还能把这个时间表纳入未来的计划，然后锻炼自我控制，最大限度地食用它们最喜欢的食物(虾、美味)。

The experiment was conducted on 29 European common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis). These little guys were put in tanks, and tested to see what their favourite food was.

研究人员以29条欧洲常见墨鱼(Sepia officinalis)为实验对象。把这些小家伙被放在水箱里，测试他们最喜欢的食物是什么。

They were given crab and shrimp at the same time, five times a day for five days; whichever food item they went for first was interpreted as the favourite. All 29 cuttlefish were all about that shrimp.

他们同时吃螃蟹和虾，每天五次，连续五天;他们最先选择的食物通常是最受欢迎的。所有的29条墨鱼都是先吃虾。

Given that cephalopods diverged from the vertebrate lineage approximately 550 million years ago, finding comparable future-oriented abilities in cuttlefish might provide valuable evolutionary insight into the origins of such a complex cognitive ability.

“大约5亿5千万年前，头足类动物就已经从脊椎动物谱系中分化出来了，在乌贼身上发现类似的面向未来的能力，可能会为这种复杂认知能力的起源提供有价值的进化洞见。”

After this study, all the cuttlefish were kept in their respective labs. They participated in a few more non-invasive studies, and lived out their natural lifespans in comfortable cuttlefish habitats.

在这项研究之后，所有的墨鱼都被保存在各自的实验室里。他们参加了一些非侵入性研究，在舒适的墨鱼栖息地度过了他们的有生之年。

The research has been published in Biology Letters.

这项研究发表在《生物学快报》上。