Bringing things back to our own temporal stomping grounds, the Holocene (aka, Now), here are two news stories that serve as nice addenda to a couple of recent posts.
First, we have some new research about the metabolism of Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, Sensational Squid #2;
Summary: A study published in the Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom finds that M. hamiltoni is not a ferocious hunter as often imagined, but rather a slow, passive ambush predator. The researchers measured the metabolic rates of smaller cold water squid species and scaled up the results to account for the size of the Colossal Squid. Their analysis indicates that the Colossal Squid has a very low metabolic rate, low energy requirements, and moves very slowly. The study team estimates that a single 11 pound fish can sustain a 1,100 pound squid for 200 days.
The next story is directly related to last week’s Argonaut video;
Summary: In a study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, biologists Julian Finn and Mark Norman (both of Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Australia) have found that female Argonauts use air bubbles trapped in their shell-like egg cases to control their buoyancy. When wild Argonauts lost the air bubble, they were observed quickly swimming to the surface to take in more air. They positioned their bodies within their cases to create an air-tight seal and then descended to a depth where the water pressure compressed the trapped air enough to achieve neutral buoyancy.
I’m still in a paleontological mood after yesterday’s big news, so here is another big fossil…literally. Parapuzosia seppenradensis is desmoceratid ammonite from Late Cretaceous Germany, and it is the largest known ammonite species. An incomplete specimen found in 1895 had a diameter of 1.95 meters (~6 ft), and in life it is estimated to have been 2.55 meters (over 8 ft) across.
As big as P. seppenradensis was, it was by no means the largest prehistoric cephalopod. That honor goes to the giant Ordovician orthoconic (i.e. straight-shelled) nautiloid Cameroceras, which may have been as much 11 meters long (~36 ft). Of course that is the topic for another post…
Today it was announced in the journal Nature that the mystery of Nectocaris pteryx, a problematic fossil species from the famous Burgess Shale deposits, has finally been solved. This tiny Invertebrate that lived in the Cambrian oceans 500 million years ago is, in fact, the oldest known cephalopod.
[UPDATE: The image I originally used in this post seems to have been removed from Wikipedia Commons. Follow this link to see before and after reconstructions.]
The original Nectocaris specimen was discovered 100 years ago, but it wasn’t formally described until 1976. However, the phylogenetic identity of the two inch long creature remained uncertain. It seemed to have similarities to both arthropods and chordates, but didn’t clearly fit into any known group. In this new report, researchers Martin Smith and Jean-Bernard Caron examined 91 additional specimens and came to the conclusion that N. pteryx is a mollusk, specifically a primitive, non-mineralized (i.e. shell-less) cephalopod. This revelation pushes the origins of cephalopods back at least 30 million years.
As we can see from the above reconstruction, Nectocaris resembled a modern cuttlefish. It had a flat “kite-shaped” body with large lateral fins, but only a single pair of long, grasping tentacles. It had a pair of non-faceted eyes on short stalks and a large anterior funnel, suggesting that cephalopod jet-propulsion evolved very early on. The lack of a shell disproves a long held assumption that shell-lessness is a relatively recent adaptation. It now seems that cephalopods didn’t evolve shells until much later, most likely “in response to increased levels of competition and predation in the Late Cambrian.”
This dramatic scene takes up pages 12 and 13 of Brightest Day #1. (The cover date is “Early July 2010,” but it actually came out a few weeks ago.) The size limitations of the blog don’t really do this splash page justice, but you should be able to tell that there is something not quite right about this monstrous squid, and I’m not talking about its unrealistic size. It appears to be dead, or, rather, undead. Now for some context…
Brightest Day is DC Comics’ follow-up and continuation of last year’s epic Blackest Night event. These stories spin out of the Green Lantern titles, but they pretty much span the entire DC Universe. I’m not going to try to summarize everything (if I even could), but, basically, the dead were brought back through the power of mysterious black rings. These vile Black Lanterns—superpowered zombies, essentially—wanted nothing less than the destruction of all life. Among there number was Aquaman, who had died in the pages of Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #1 (the 2007 revamp of the title, which itself was the spawn of yet another big DCU event). Blackest Night ends not only with the defeat of the Black Lanterns, but with the resurrection of a select number of previously deceased characters, including Aquaman.
This brings us to the Brightest Day mini-series and issue #1. Aquaman and his wife Mera are attempting to rescue a group of children from the clutches of pirates. Aquaman calls on a giant squid for assistance, but to his horror, the titanic animal that answers his summons is a rotting undead monster. In fact, all the sea life that Aquaman calls end up being zombies…which is exactly what happened back when he was a Black Lantern. So, what is wrong with the newly alive King of the Sea? Presumably this is one of the many mysteries that will be answered during the course of the series.
Brightest Day #1 is written by Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi. No less than five different artists are credited, so I’m not sure if this page was penciled by Ivan Reis, Pat Gleason, Adrian Syaf, Scott Clark, or Joe Prado.
A few comments on the squid itself…Aquaman referes to it as a “giant squid,” but this leviathan is obviously no ordinary Architeuthis. Its arms are lined with hooks, not suckers, so maybe it’s actually supposed to be a Colossal Squid (Mesonychoteuthis) instead, but still…this thing is freaking huge! I think that “Kraken” is as close to an identification that we can make. It is only a comic book after all…
It’s been quite a while since Kid Indie Squid Kid made an appearance here, but he’s back and ready for Summer! (As it turns out, they don’t make very many cephalopod-themed Winter baby clothes.)
This tank top (OK…maybe it’s technically a “muscle shirt,” but that’s not nearly as alliterative) features an topsy-turvy green octopus gripping a small blue fish. For an article of child’s clothing, this octopus is uncharacteristically accurate…no smiley face, nose, or eyebrows, and there’s not a sailor’s hat in sight! I found “Hang On” as part of three-piece set (two shirts and a pair of shorts) at Babies R’ Us, but, as I haven’t been able to find it for sale anywhere online, I don’t know if it’s available on it’s own or not.
Architeuthis "princeps" Modified from Verrill, 1879
At long last, we come to the end of my countdown of Ten Sensational Squids, a close-up look at a few of my favorite Teuthids. The top spot belongs, of course, to the rock star of the squid world, the darling of cryptozoology, and the species that got me started on this whole cephalopod obsession in the first place, the one, the only, the Giant Squid!
1. Architeuthis dux (Giant Squid)
First officially recognized by science in 1857, the Giant Squid was considered for more than a century to be the world’s largest Invertebrate (both in length and mass), a title that now appears to belong instead to the Antarctic species Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, the Colossal Squid. However, this claim is not universally accepted, and some researchers still ascribe to Architeuthis a maximum total length of 18 meters…nearly 60 feet! The more conservative estimate, and one that has become commonly accepted in recent years, is that female Giant Squid max out at a mantle length of 2.25 m (a little over 7 ft) with a total length of 13 m (~43 ft), which falls just short of the estimated 14 m Colossal Squid. (Male Architeuthis, at a mere 10 m, are a bit smaller than their mates.)
So, what is the source of this size disparity? It all seems to go back to a single specimen which washed ashore at Thimble Trickle Bay, Newfoundland on November 2, 1877 (unless it was Nov 8, 1879). This particular squid was reported to have had 35 foot tentacles and a mantle and head which together measured an astounding 20 feet long! This means that just the body of this monster would have exceeded the total length of most Architeuthis specimens known to modern science! For comparison, the largest Giant Squid currently on display is an 8.62 m (28.3 ft) specimen caught off the Falkland Islands in 2004. Based on current data and the fact that the elastic nature of squid tissues (particularly their feeding tentacles) makes them notoriously difficult to measure accurately, the veracity of this 130 year old report is highly suspect.
There are several other unverified reports of similarly sized Giant Squids from the later part of the Eighteenth Century, and the cryptozoological literature contains accounts of even bigger squids. Could it be possible that 60 ft (or greater) Giant Squid actually do exist, lurking undetected in the ocean depths? Of course! In fact, that would be sweet as hell. However, the facts as we know them just don’t quite support such a claim. For further reading on this, I highly recommend you check out Cameron McCormick’s (aka, The Lord Geekington) pair ofexcellent articles that explore this issue in more depth.
Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland specimen, circa 1981 (photo by derekkeats, from Flickr)
So now that we’ve tackled the size issue, what else to we know about the Giant Squid? They have long, narrow mantles, small ovoid fins, and huge eyes. Their arms and tentacles are lined with serrated suction cups. In life, they are a deep red color, but this is generally not retained in recovered specimens. Architeuthis is found world wide at depths of 300-1000 m (~984-3,280 ft). There may only be a single global species, A. dux, or possibly three, based on geographic distribution: A. dux (Atlantic), A. martensi (North Pacific), and A. sanctipauli (Southern). Wikipedia lists an additional five nominal species, and as many as 20 different species have been named over the years (many named from single, badly damaged specimens). They are predatory, feeding on fish and other, smaller squid, and, in turn, they themselves are preyed upon by Sperm Whales. If one assumes that Giant Squid make up a significant percentage of the whales’ diet, it would seem that are actually quite common, despite their uncanny ability to evade human detection. Because they are so seldom seen, however, little else is known about their behavior.
Melbourne Aquarium specimen, photo by Fir0002 (from Wikipedia)
Nearly all known Architeuthis specimens have been found either in the stomachs of Sperm Whales, washed up on shore, floating dead on the surface, or accidentally caught by deep-sea trawling. Sadly, none of these scenarios are kind to delicate soft tissues, and consequently, most specimens on display around the world are in pretty rough shape. The first photographs of a living adult Giant Squid were taken in 2002 on Goshiki Beach, Japan (the 13 ft individual was found at the surface and died soon after). It wouldn’t be until 2004 that a living Giant Squid was photographed in its natural habitat. Japanese researchers were able to lure a 26 ft Architeuthis to a baited line at a depth of 3,000 ft off Japan’s Ogasawara Islands. They took 500 pictures over the course of four hours, and you can see some of them at NationalGeographic.com. In 2006, the same research team filmed video of a live Giant Squid for the first time. Again using a baited line, the squid, an 11 ft female, was brought to the surface, as seen in this segment from Japanese television.
In October of last year (as reported right here on ISK), a professional underwater photographer captured the first pictures of Sperm Whales in the act of eating a Giant Squid. (You can see some of these amazing photos here.) This took place, yet again, in the waters off the Ogasawara Islands, further proving that Japan is the new center of modern Architeuthis research. Maybe one day soon someone will finally get footage of the legendary battle that is thought to take place when a hungry Sperm Whale sets his sights on an unsuspecting Giant Squid. This encounter has likely been mythologized, but it is mysteries like this, still unknown after nearly two centuries, that have helped make Architeuthis such a fixture in popular culture. Clearly, it is one of the Most Awesome Animals Ever.
This is Mur, one of my best and oldest friends. She rocks.
Her awesome octopus shirt is available on Shirt.Woot! for $15.00. I’m not sure why we don’t give all octopuses bubble guns, because “PEWPEWPEWPEW” has got to be one of the greatest onomatopoeia of all time. Well, sure these newly weaponized cephalopods might rise up and try to invade the mainland…but that’s why we don’t give them REAL guns!
The Umbrella Academy is a thoroughly delightful series written by Gerard Way with art by Gabriel Bá and published by Dark Horse Comics. Instead of a continuous on-going series, Umbrella Academy is released as separately numbered mini-series, beginning with Apocalypse Suite #1 (September, 2007).
The original Umbrella Academy was made up of seven extraordinary children, each gifted with a different ability. Together, they were an unstoppable force against evil, but they eventually disbanded under mysterious circumstances. Now all grown up, the surviving members come together after the death of Sir Reginald Hargreeves, the only father the children had ever known. They realize they must now face a new looming crisis and that only a reunited Umbrella Academy can save the world.
This beautiful cover of Apocalypse Suite #1 by James Jean depicts the Eiffel Tower sprouting a number of giant tentacles. This is, of course, exceedingly cool. It also shows a person (as both a man and a boy) with a mass of tentacles emerging from his chest. This is The Horror, who is long dead when the story opens, and remains one of the most enigmatic members of the Academy. (Incidentally, the blond knife-wielding man is code-named The Kraken, but that is the extent of his cephalpod-ness.)
From the very first page of Apocalypse Suite (below), it quickly becomes obvious to the reader that anything can happen in the world of The Umbrella Academy.
