It’s been a while since we had a new cephalopod shirt from Threadless here on T-shirt Tuesday, and while I’m generally not a big fan of puns, this design is just so charming! Not only do we get a nice red octopus, but also a shark, eel, narwhal, and a plethora of cute little fish. Also, I can’t help but be reminded of this classic scene from Batman: The Movie!
“Plenty of Fish in the C” will run you $18 and comes in Creme in men’s, women’s sizes, and in White in kid’s and infant sizes. For two dollars more, you can even get this design on a onesie!
So, waaaaay back in January I started this series to count down the ten types of squid I find most fascinating (in no particular order, more or less). I’m not exactly sure why I lost momentum so tremendously, but I figure it’s finally time to wrap things up. If you’ve been following along, I’m sure it will come as little surprise which species made the top two spots. (If you missed them, follow the Ten Sensational Squids tag for entries 10-3.)
2. Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni (Colossal Squid)
photo by K.S. Bolstad (from tolweb.org)
This is it, the longest and heaviest known squid. In fact, M. hamiltoni is the largest living Invertebrate. Well, probably.
First identified in 1925 from remains found in the stomachs of Sperm Whales, the Colossal Squid lives only in Antarctic waters. The largest known specimen to date (even bigger than the one pictured above with teuthologist Steve O’Shea) was captured by a New Zealand fishing boat in 2007 and measured an estimated 10 m (~33 ft) in total length and weighed 495 kg (~1,091 lb). It is currently on display at the Musem of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
Most known Colossal Squid specimens are of immature individuals, but extrapolating from the sizes of beaks recovered from whales, scientists have estimated that adults can attain a total body length of up to 14 m (~46 ft)! Mesonychoteuthis also possesses the largest eyes of any animal, over a foot across—even though that record is still commonly awarded to the slightly smaller, but more famous, Giant Squid (Architeuthis dux). Compared to the Giant Squid, the Colossal Squid has shorter arms and tentacles, but possesses a mantle that is both longer and more robust—as much as 4m (~13 ft) long. Another notable difference between these two species is that the arms and tentacle clubs of M. hamiltoni sport vicious-looking hooks instead of suckers, a distinction that is nicely illustrated in this display at London’s Darwin Centre.
photo by Ben Templesmith
M. hamiltoni, which is the only known species of the genus Mesonychoteuthis, is Cranchiid squid, which makes it closely related to the wee Piglet Squid we encountered earlier in the countdown.
For more on the Colossal Squid, check out this slideshow by Tonmo.com which collects a lot of cool images and facts about this rarely seen giant.
This is one I’ve been meaning to post about pretty much since I launched the blog, but it took me until today to get a decent photo of myself wearing it.
So, what the heck is Dinosaur Comics? I’m so glad you asked!
Dinosaur Comics (www.qwantz.com) is the creation of Canadian webcomicist Ryan North. The concept is a simple one: over the course of six panels, which are identical from one issue to the next, talking dinosaurs converse about such diverse issues as philosophy, social etiquette, grammar, and Topics of the Day. It is kind of like a perpetual Classical Greek dialogue, if you replaced Socrates with a spectacularly self-absorbed Tyrannosaurus. Also, it is one of my favorite things ever.
So, you now ask, what does this have to do with cephalopods? “Sinister Octopus” was inspired by the comic embedded below. In it T-Rex gets new neighbors and then gets a near fatal case of the willies.
These suspicious cephalopods (and those racoons!) show up every now and then to remind T-Rex that they still live next door and to creep him out. In fact, just yesterday, it was revealed that they followed T-Rex when he moved to a new home!
It’s been quite a while since I posted anything out of my own collection of cephalopodabila (yeah, I’m pretty sure I just invented a new word there), but that is not because I am out of stuff to post. Heavens no! While it’s true that my current state of unemployment has encouraged me to do a lot of “virtual collecting” recently, I still own plenty of awesome ceph-stuff that hasn’t made its way onto the blog yet.
For example…
This 500 piece jigsaw puzzle was produced by Iron Crown Enterprises in 1997 as part of their Middle-Earth Puzzles series. “The Way Is Shut” depicts a very octopus-like interpretation of the Watcher in the Water, Tolkien’s tentacled lake monster from The Fellowship of the Ring. (Well, it appears to have at least twelve arms, but but it still resembles an octopus more than anything.)This version of the Watcher is by artist Ted Nasmith and was originally produced for ICE’s Middle-Earth Collectible Card Game.
For a detailed examination of the Watcher in the Water, see this post from last year’s Movie Week.
