Sepia
in zoölogy, the typical and only recent genus of Sepiidx; body oblong (varying in length from 3 to 28 inches), with lateral fins as long as it self; arms with four rows of suckers; mantle supported by tubercles fitting into sockets on neck and funnel; shell broad and thick in front, laminated, and terminating in a permanent mucro. ward puts the species at 30, universally distributed. In palæontology; fossil species 10, from the Jurassic to the Eocene Tertiary. Several species have been based on mucrones from the London Clay. In comparative anatomy: the black secretion of the cuttlefish. In chemistry and art: a dark brown pigment prepared from the black secretion of the cuttlefish, S. officinalis.