After taking DNA samples from the remains of 43 different giant squid, scientists have come to the conclusion that there is one global population of giant squid, without any subspecies.
Museum Display of Giant Squid Fighting Sperm Whale: (Photo by siRRonWong /Creative Commons via Flickr)
Since there isn’t much variation in the genes of these mammoth mollusks, it is assumed that even though giant squid are found around the world’s oceans, that adult giant squid share the same general area of the larger and deeper oceanic depths. Then again, there are many things that mankind doesn’t know about the giant squid. We don’t know their average lifespan, how large of an area an adult claims as its territorial range, or even the global population of giant squid….
But what we do know about the giant squid makes this beast even more fascinating! Here are some established facts about this elusive animal:
Scientists studying a dead giant squid: (Photo by NTNU Vitenskapsmuseet /Creative Commons via Flickr)
An adult giant squid can stretch out longer than a school bus, and their eyes are the size of dinner plates.
This squid has the largest eyes of any living animal species.
While a mighty predator in its own right, the giant squid sometimes falls prey to sperm whales.
It has the longest tentacles of any cephalopod, and is equipped with 8 arms as well as two longer tentacles.
The tentacles are covered with sharp, saw-like suckers and grasping hooks to take town prey.
These carnivorous invertebrates eat a wide range of meat, including fish, crustaceans and other squids.
A giant squid was captured on film for the first time on January 27th through the exhaustive efforts of a dedicated Japanese research team and the Discovery Chanel. Take a peek at this real “sea monster” below:
It’s absolutely fantastic to see scientists plumbing the ocean’s depths to reveal the secretive lives of these creatures. A giant squid is like something out of a fantasy novel; it’s massive size and fights to the death with whales make it even more fascinating, no matter how difficult they are to observe. Who needs to go to outer space, when we’ve got rare, tentacled giants in out own oceans?
