4/4/2003: Colossal squid
 

http://cellar.org/2003/colossalsquid.jpg

The sea has coughed up an oddity. It has eyes a foot in diameter, the largest of any animal. It has eight arms and two huge long tentacles with razor-sharp hooks on the end, which it uses to rip its prey to shreds. It doesn't have teeth, it has beak-like hooks. In order to find food, it glows, lighting up the deep dark waters where it swims. It's meters longer than the largest whales.

Fishermen near Antarctica discovered this, a massive beast, but it's just a baby. They believe there are even more massive squids out there. Be afraid...

They couldn't call it a "giant squid" because that name is already used, so it's (temporarily?) the "colossal squid".

Scientists kinda knew *something* was out there before finding this one, because of squid meat found in the stomachs of whales. Interesting!

And they think there must, now, be other beasts in the deep ocean that we just don't know about.

Mmmm, Calamari...

They also mentioned that this is the second fully intact specimen they've found, so it's not super new. But still...

One quote I liked was something like "If you fell into the water near this guy, you're in serious trouble."

It was caught on a net feeding on fish that were up to <b>two meters</b> in length. So that should give you some idea of its ability to eat, oh, say, a 5'4" woman.

its ability to eat, oh, say, a 5'4" woman.

Hell, I did that last night.


bah-bump-bum!

Ha ha!

How do they know it's a baby? Maybe it's a neotenous adult.

So this thing is a species of squid even bigger than what we call Giant Squid? Wow.

Your point reminds me of something sort of unrelated. Things scientists just convieniently ignore.

In my human evolution class a while back, the professor was explaining how they determine the date of a fossil or find if they're unable to date the find directly. Instead, they date the earth directly above and below the fossil, and get a possible date range from the soil or rock layers.

I asked him how they would know if someone dug deeply into the earth and placed the artifact or fossil into a different earth/time layer than what it was supposed to be in.

And he could only reply mischeviously that no one would ever do that.

You said it was "meters longer than the largest whales." Blue whales are about 75 to 80 feet long, or about 24 meters long. Sorry, but this thing doesn't look that long.

That's because it's just a baby.

The adults attack sperm whales. Their balls must be bigger than their eyes.

See all that brown and white stuff above the tentacles? That's also part of the squid!

You can get an even better look at the size and TALONS:eek: by checking out the video at this link:
http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplayli...v4u8un3e8e7668

They're saying it is 16 feet.

Antarctica is a jungle full of wildlife underneath the icy water. Coparatively, the warm, clear water in say the Gulf of Mexico is a nice warm desert underneath the water. Only the coldest of water could probably support this thing.

Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf held his usual midday news conference, telling reporters that U.S. troops were not in the capital and claiming that Saddam's forces had repelled the attack of the giant squid.

"Today, the tide has turned," al-Sahhaf said. "We have destroyed the evil monster sent from America."

Speaking to the Al-Arabiya Arab satellite channel, a man who claimed to be a member of the Fedayeen vowed to keep up the fight.

"They are cowards. They are afraid to fight us face to face so they sent this giant squid. We will show them and cook the squid and eat it. Allah be praised. God is great!"

Here's another one. This 41 foot carcass washed up in Chile.the link

Ewww.

Can't imagine the smell....

I'm not doing the blind lesbian joke.:p

Yeah, it's big.

It was really a piece of Sperm Whale. Nevermind;)

Which bit of a sperm whale? ... Looks like 'THE ROCK' in StarTrek original series to me! :D


Chris.

Is that anything like Bacon Bits? Yum. :vomit:

I think you would have to have an awfully large salad to use those. I mean even bigger than the ones at Applebees.

There back!!!

Giant squid grabs London audience
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4756514.stm
There is a video clip, too.

Have you been following the Doonesbury comic at McFriendly's?

This is yet another reason to spend more of our tax dollars exploring what is on our planet instead of others. We don't even know what's here yet. IMO let's learn about Earth amd THEN move on to another star........

I don't understand the either-or mentality. Why not do both? Scientific investigation allways pays off.

Seems they make you buy the E-ticket to see this sucker(s). ;)

Here's another strange sea-creature that just popped up. My wife thinks it looks like it's wearing chaps.


Also, a quick comment about Juju's old, old post regarding fossil hunters faking data.

The professor was wrong in stating that no one would ever do that; I can think of three cases within the last two months of biologists faking data (one a cloning researcher who submitted fake pictures, one a psychologist(?) who invented a fake population of people and fake answers to questions, and one who lied about some RNAi experiments). The good news is that they were all caught. The proof of science is that other scientists go back and repeat (or in these cases, do not repeat) the experiments. The VAST majority of scientists are honest about their results and have come up with a good system for verifying the work of others to the point of sharing their DNA and cell lines with competitors. Fossil dating is a good example of this. Say you have one fossil which can not be dated except by the soil above and below it. Eventually someone will find another fossil of the same type which can be dated. If the new date is different from the old date, they'll wait until a few more can be dated and a firm conclusion can be reached. Eventually, if corrections are required, they'll be adopted.

Pssst...Electrophile.....over here. :D
I would expect scientists faking it to be caught. Too much peer review to slip anything important through.

That's enough calamari to feed an entire Greek wedding reception. :D

These creatures typically live at depths of 3,000 feet and deeper which is why they are not often observed. This speciman is now in a specially constructed tank so that it can be viewed AND so that it does not keep rotting (and smelling bad). It provides some idea of how deep whales will dive.

Nummy! Show me an oyster that big and I'm in hog heaven! Yowza!