April 06, 2003
Colossal Squid
David Trowbridge is now scared to go into the (south polar) water:
Posted by DeLong at April 6, 2003 08:47 PM | TrackBackRedwood Dragon: March 30, 2003 - April 05, 2003 Archives:
This is the stuff of which nightmares are made, straight out of an H.R. Giger illustration or the lurid imaginings of H.P Lovecraft:
And this is just a baby—full grown she might come to 40 feet in length, armed with rotating razor claws and two sharp beaks. It was tearing up 6-foot fish when caught.
"This is a very aggressive, dangerous animal - mark my words," said marine biologist and squid expert Dr Steve O'Shea as he studied the two arms and eight fearsome tentacles, each of which has up to 25 teeth-like hooks."The Colossal is a gelatinous blob with seriously evil arms on it. If you were to fall into the water down there in the Antarctic, if the cold didn't get you first, something like this could devour you in seconds."
Leave the lights on!
What and how much does something that big eat?
On another note, giant squid were instrumental in understanding the biophysics of the nervous system and squid was on the menu for the 1963 Nobel Prize for Medicine.
Posted by: bakho on April 6, 2003 09:52 PMsounds fun!
Posted by: Taxed on April 7, 2003 12:46 AMI saw this on a message board the other day. I'm no marine biologist but I was convinced this was an April Fool's hoax...
Am I missing something here?
Posted by: danny on April 7, 2003 07:44 AMI think they eat fishes, and other calamari, and they were eaten by sperm-whales, whose declining population, through over-capture, is no longer effective in keeping them at a smaller individual size. I suspect they have no "adult-size" so they keep growing as long they live, if their brains keeps along, they may end being quite intelligents.
DSW
Posted by: Antoni Jaume on April 7, 2003 08:41 AMSquid and octopi are the most intelligent invertebrates and have the fastest reflexes of any living creature. Their eye is similiar to the mammalian eye, a puzzle for evolutionists. Not bad for a creature closley related to clams and oysters. They can change color to match their background, even if the background is mottled and rippling.
I've been a squid advocate for years, and I think that Greenpeace is a bunch of mammalocentric murderers.
Posted by: zizka on April 7, 2003 10:12 AMIn fact, at least some of the squids species eyes are better than ours in that they have no spherical aberration. They evolved independently of ours, in spite of the similarity. However a few years ago it was discovered that invertebrates and vertebrates shared a gene whose expression produced eyes. IIRC they made insects with eyes in the legs.
DSW
Posted by: Antoni Jaume on April 7, 2003 10:35 AMIf this is a "real" article, I take no pleasure in the catching of the Squid or the sensational lurid language of the description. We must properly value animal life.
Posted by: jd on April 7, 2003 11:41 AMThis is particularly terrifying for those of us whose memories of childhood include "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."
Posted by: Bernard Yomtov on April 7, 2003 11:42 AMThis is particularly terrifying for those of us whose memories of childhood include "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."
Posted by: Bernard Yomtov on April 7, 2003 11:47 AM"On another note, giant squid were instrumental in understanding the biophysics of the nervous system"
Actually, as I undestand it, it isn't "giant squid" that are used to study neurology.
In textbooks on nerves and the brain you'll find references to "giant squid neurons", but that's not "neurons of the giant squid", it's "giant neurons of the squid".
Squids in general, it seems, have very large neurons, which makes it easy to do experiments on neural signal conduction, etc.
Posted by: Jon H on April 7, 2003 11:58 AM... on the mantelpiece
Posted by: Melcher on April 7, 2003 12:20 PMWe in the Cephalopod Anti-Defamation League Auxiliary denounce Jules Verne and all his mammalocentric works. And our friends in the Cephalopod Liberation Front are starting to lose their patience.
Posted by: zizka on April 7, 2003 12:49 PMLook Zizka,
First of all, it's unfair to denounce Verne. He was merely reflecting the attitudes of his times. There's no evidence he ever ate calamari.
Second, I demand that responsible supporters of cephalopod rights, such as yourself, denounce the submarine attacks and other violent actions of the radicals of the CLF. Assaults on mammals have risen sharply, and the cetaceans are theatening open warfare, hoping to drive the cephalopods onto the land.
Posted by: Bernard Yomtov on April 7, 2003 01:14 PMI'm not saying that it's right, Bernard, but when the C.L.F. comes up on land they'll go after their known enemies. Seafood restaurants, first, and then Greenpeace, and then people who make unfriendly internet posts. I'm just warning you for your own good.
Posted by: zizka on April 7, 2003 04:13 PMYou guys do know that humans are very good predators for the 2 main enemies of giant squid, namely whales and giant sharks.
Also, note that humans have very little 'footprint' on the Antarctic Ice Shelf, and the deep waters in general.
There is no truth to the frenzied conspiracy theorists that humans are the biocontrol agent for predators on young giant squid.
Ian Whitchurch
PS I want to emphasise what an excellent job Rath is doing as Prince of Canberra.
Posted by: Ian Whitchurch on April 7, 2003 08:22 PMZizka, is H.P. Lovecraft also a mammalocentric propagandist dog, or is he considered a friend of cephalopods? Since I want to keep my p.c. credentials up to date, I need to know this...
By the way, Lovecraft is proof that seafood allergies can lead to quality literature. Now if only Jane Austen had had a reaction.
Posted by: andres on April 8, 2003 07:21 AMZizka, you fool.
You personify the notion of "class traitor."
Posted by: Bernard Yomtov on April 8, 2003 08:24 AMAt least I won't be gripped by hooked tentacles and torn to pieces by large beaks.
Yes, people involved in whaling will be spared.
Posted by: zizka on April 8, 2003 12:05 PMI love the cick it make me so horny I want a very big cock in my gay ass mouth.
Posted by: Sumir on April 9, 2003 01:36 PMI need to understand how this squid (Colossal) weighing in at around 300 lbs is larger then the Giant Squid "Largest Found around 1,950 lbs" Even if this colossal squid is only half grown, that would make it still only 600 to 800 lbs as an adult.
Posted by: JBlume on April 24, 2003 05:42 PMhey, big does not always mean heavy.You
get what i mean,JBlume?
Besides, they have the proof don't they?
Actually, I'd like to know everything about this creature.Anyone with the knowledge, could you please email it to me at
Kai_rijal@hotmail.com
hey, big does not always mean heavy.You
get what i mean,JBlume?
Besides, they have the proof don't they?
Actually, I'd like to know everything about this creature.Anyone with the knowledge, could you please email it to me at
Kai_rijal@hotmail.com