While I was wrapped up with Plush Week, the rest of the ceph-blogging community was talking about Paul, the so-called psychic octopus that has been accurately “predicting” the outcome of Germany’s matches in the World Cup. Now, I have to admit that I have paid very little attention to the most popular sporting event in the world. This is not because of some snooty American prejudice against football, I just don’t really care for sports.
Anyway, I have two thoughts on the matter:
1. I’m a skeptic, but if anything was going to have psychic powers, it would totally be an octopus.
In the comments, Linda Kuhnz from MBARI comes to the rescue. She says…
The squids featured in this video were filmed in Monterey Bay (except for the Piglet Squid, which was filmed in the Gulf of California) at depths ranging from 980 to 3,150 feet.
I’m on the wrong coast to be able to attend, but if anyone is going to be in the Seattle area this weekend and needs something fun to do, you might want to check this out!
Start: Jun 13 2010 – 1:00pm End: Jun 13 2010 – 3:00pm
Event Description: Artists, scientists, and enthusiasts of all ages come together to celebrate the intelligence and wonder of the cephalopods: octopus, cuttlefish, chambered nautilus, and squid. We’ll share some of our favorite scientific facts, enjoy cephalopod-inspired music, poetry, art, film, fashion, and more - then sit back to watch a cephalopod nature documentary to see these amazing creatures in action. All ages, $5 suggested donation, free stickers!
For more information, contact songsforsquid@gmail.com
Location:
Northwest Film Forum
1515 12th Ave (between Pike & Pine on Capitol Hill)
Seattle, WA
I find it a little hard to believe that The Goonies is 25 years old. I am also surprised that I never knew about this deleted scene wherein our heroic band of foul-mouthed adolescents get attacked by a giant octopus!
In this clip, the song used to defeat the octopus is “Eight Arms to Hold You” by Goon Squad. Here’s the original video, full of stop-motiony goodness. It’s a classic tale of Octopus Meets Girl, Octopus Helps Girl Win Band Audition.
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.
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.
Last night I went out to Chapel Hill to see MC Frontalot perform at Local 506. The opening act was singer/songwriter Brandon Patton, who also plays bass for MC Frontalot under the pseudonym BL4k Lotus. It turns out Brandon is a fellow aficionado of squid shirts, and he was sporting this awesome Gama-Go hoodie featuring their classic giant squid design. (Not available anymore, sadly.)
Unfortunately, I only cought the tail end of Brandon’s set, but I did get there in time to hear his rousing cover of The Pogues “Sally MacLennane.” Check out Brandon’s music at www.brandonpatton.com.
The MC Frontalot set was, as usual, nerdcore perfection. His brand new album Zero Day officially came out today, and you should buy it! With money! Go to Frontalot.com to find out how.
If you are not familiar with Front’s brand of intelligent, geeky hip hop, here is a video I took this February at his previous local show. The song is “Bizarro Genius Baby” from his second album Secrects From The Future.
For his senior thesis in the Illustration department at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Jim Tierney re-designed the dust jackets of four classic Jules Verne novels, including a particularly squid-tastic cover for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. If these books were for sale I would totally buy them. With money!
