First picture of live giant squid

For the first time ever, scientists have observed a giant squid in the wild.

Two Japanese scientists, Tsunemi Kubodera and Kyoichi Mori, report in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B [the B standing for the biological sciences] that they have made the world’s first observations of a wild giant squid.

Working off the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands, about 600 miles south of Tokyo, Kubodera and Mori photographed the monster with a robotic camera at a depth of 3,000 feet.

Giant squid are marine mollusks related to cuttlefish and the octopus. They are deep-ocean dwellers that can grow to at least 10 m (33 ft) for males and 13 m (43 ft) for females, although there are undocumented reports of specimens of up to 20 m (66 ft).

Relatively little is known about the biology of the giant squid. Scientists do know that one of the squid’s chief predators is the sperm whale, a large, toothed whale.

Credits

Rhett Butler Editor

Topics

AnimalsBiodiversityDeep SeaGreenSquidWildlife

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