The colossal squid (''Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni'') is part of the family
Cranchiidae.
It is sometimes called the Antarctic squid or giant cranch squid and is believed to be the
largest squid species in terms of mass.
It is the only recognized member of the
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
''Mesonychoteuthis'' and is known from only a
small number of specimens.
The species is confirmed to reach a mass of at least , though the largest specimens—known only from
beaks
The beak, bill, or rostrum is an external anatomical structure found mostly in birds, but also in turtles, non-avian dinosaurs and a few mammals. A beak is used for eating, preening, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food, ...
found in
sperm whale
The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the genus ''Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the sperm whale famil ...
stomachs—may perhaps weigh as much as ,
e Papa
"" (English: "Oh, Uncle Waiari"), also known as "" is a traditional Māori song, often used in tītī tōrea, a type of whakaraka (skill and dexterity game) played by passing tītī (40-60cm long sticks) while seated, in time to a rhythmic so ...
(2019)
How big is the colossal squid on display?
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...
.e Papa
"" (English: "Oh, Uncle Waiari"), also known as "" is a traditional Māori song, often used in tītī tōrea, a type of whakaraka (skill and dexterity game) played by passing tītī (40-60cm long sticks) while seated, in time to a rhythmic so ...
(2019)
The beak of the colossal squid
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...
. making it the largest known
invertebrate
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
.
Maximum total length has been estimated at .
[Roper, C.F.E. & P. Jereb (2010). Family Cranchiidae. In: P. Jereb & C.F.E. Roper (eds.) ]
Cephalopods of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of species known to date. Volume 2. Myopsid and Oegopsid Squids
'. FAO Species Catalogue for Fishery Purposes No. 4, Vol. 2. FAO, Rome. pp. 148–178. The colossal squid has the largest eyes of any known creature ever to exist.
The species has similar anatomy to other members of its family although it is the only member of Cranchiidae to display hooks on its arms and tentacles.
It is known to inhabit the circumantarctic
Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...
.
Although little is known about the behaviour, it is known to use
bioluminescence
Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by living organisms. It is a form of chemiluminescence. Bioluminescence occurs widely in marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in some fungi, microorganisms including some b ...
to attract prey.
It is presumed to be an
ambush predator
Ambush predators or sit-and-wait predators are carnivorous animals that capture or trap prey via stealth, luring or by (typically instinctive) strategies utilizing an element of surprise. Unlike pursuit predators, who chase to capture prey us ...
, and is a major prey of the sperm whale.
The first specimens were discovered and described in 1925.
In 1981, an adult specimen was discovered, and in 2003 a second specimen was collected.
Captured in 2007, the largest colossal squid weighed ,
and is now on display with a second specimen at the
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...
.
Morphology
The colossal
squid
True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting t ...
shares features common to all squids: a mantle for locomotion, one pair of gills, and certain external characteristics like eight arms and two tentacles, a head, and two fins.
In general, it is safe to describe the morphology and anatomy of the colossal squid the same way one would describe any other squid.
However, there are certain morphological / anatomical characteristics that separate the colossal squid from other squids in its family: The colossal squid is the only squid in
its family with hooks, either swivelling or three-pointed, equipped on its arms and tentacles.
There are squids in other families that also have hooks, but no other squid in the family
Cranchiidae.
![Calmarcolossal](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Calmarcolossal.jpg)
Unlike most squid species, the colossal squid exhibits
abyssal gigantism; it is the heaviest living invertebrate species, reaching weights up to .
For comparison, squids typically have a mantle length of about and weigh about .
Compared to the
giant squid
The giant squid (''Architeuthis dux'') is a species of deep-ocean dwelling squid in the family Architeuthidae. It can grow to a tremendous size, offering an example of abyssal gigantism: recent estimates put the maximum size at around Trace ...
, which also exhibits
deep-sea gigantism
In zoology, deep-sea gigantism or abyssal gigantism is the tendency for species of invertebrates and other deep-sea dwelling animals to be larger than their shallower-water relatives across a large taxonomic range. Proposed explanations for thi ...
, the colossal squid is heavier.
One evidence is that an analysis of the beaks of other specimens from the stomach of sperm whales have shown proof that it is likely that colossal squids much heavier (up to ) exist.
The colossal squid also has the largest eyes documented in the animal kingdom, with an estimated diameter of .
Distribution and habitat
The squid's known range extends thousands of kilometres north of
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...
to southern
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
, southern
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
, and the southern tip of
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, making it primarily an inhabitant of the entire circumantarctic
Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...
.
Colossal squid are also sighted often near
Cooperation Sea
Cooperation Sea, also called Commonwealth Sea (erratum) or Sodruzhestvo Sea (russian: Море Содружества), is a proposed sea name for part of the Southern Ocean, between Enderby Land (the eastern limit of which is 59°34'E) and West I ...
and less near
Ross Sea
The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica, between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land and within the Ross Embayment, and is the southernmost sea on Earth. It derives its name from the British explorer James Clark Ross who vi ...
because of its predator and competitor, the
Antarctic toothfish.
The region between the
Weddell Sea
The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and contains the Weddell Gyre. Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula. The easternmost point is Cape Norvegia at Princess Martha ...
and the western
Kerguelen archipelago
The Kerguelen Islands ( or ; in French commonly ' but officially ', ), also known as the Desolation Islands (' in French), are a group of islands in the sub-Antarctic constituting one of the two exposed parts of the Kerguelen Plateau, a large ...
has been deemed a “hotspot” based on characteristics of the habitat. The squid's vertical distribution appears to correlate directly with age. Young squid are found between , adolescent squid are found and adult squid are found primarily within the
mesopelagic
The mesopelagic zone (Greek μέσον, middle), also known as the middle pelagic or twilight zone, is the part of the pelagic zone that lies between the photic epipelagic and the aphotic bathypelagic zones. It is defined by light, and begins ...
and
bathypelagic regions of the open ocean.
Behavior
Feeding
![Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni beak](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Mesonychoteuthis_hamiltoni_beak.jpg)
Little is known about their behaviour, but it is believed to feed on prey such as
chaetognatha
The Chaetognatha or chaetognaths (meaning ''bristle-jaws'') are a phylum of predatory marine worms that are a major component of plankton worldwide. Commonly known as arrow worms, about 20% of the known Chaetognatha species are benthic, and ca ...
, large
fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...
such as the
Patagonian toothfish
The Patagonian toothfish (''Dissostichus eleginoides'') is a species of notothen found in cold waters () between depths of in the southern Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans and Southern Ocean on seamounts and continental shelves around most ...
, and smaller squid in the deep
ocean
The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wo ...
using
bioluminescence
Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by living organisms. It is a form of chemiluminescence. Bioluminescence occurs widely in marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in some fungi, microorganisms including some b ...
.
A recent study by Remeslo, Yakushev and Laptikhovsky revealed that
Antarctic toothfish make up a significant part of the colossal squid's diet; of the 8,000 toothfish brought aboard trawlers between 2011 and 2014, seventy-one showed clear signs of attack by colossal squid. A study in
Prydz Bay
Prydz Bay is a deep embayment of Antarctica between the Lars Christensen Coast and Ingrid Christensen Coast. The Bay is at the downstream end of a giant glacial drainage system that originates in the East Antarctic interior. The Lambert Glacie ...
region of Antarctica found squid remains in a female colossal squid's stomach, suggesting the possibility of
cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, b ...
within this species. Studies measuring the
δ15N
In geochemistry, hydrology, paleoclimatology and paleoceanography, ''δ''15N (pronounced "delta fifteen n") or delta-N-15 is a measure of the ratio of the two stable isotopes of nitrogen, 15N: 14N.
Formulas
Two very similar expressions for ar ...
content of the
chitin
Chitin ( C8 H13 O5 N)n ( ) is a long-chain polymer of ''N''-acetylglucosamine, an amide derivative of glucose. Chitin is probably the second most abundant polysaccharide in nature (behind only cellulose); an estimated 1 billion tons of chit ...
ous beaks of cephalopods to determine
trophic ecology levels have demonstrated that the colossal squid is a top predator that is positively correlated with its increased size.
This new confirmation of the colossal squid's trophic level suggests that it likely preys on large fishes and smaller squids, according to its size, and that its predators include
sperm whale
The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the genus ''Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the sperm whale famil ...
s and
sleeper sharks.
Metabolism
The colossal squid is thought to have a very slow
metabolic rate
Metabolism (, from el, μεταβολή ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run cell ...
, needing only around of prey daily for an adult with a mass of .
Estimates of its energy requirements suggest it is a slow-moving
ambush predator
Ambush predators or sit-and-wait predators are carnivorous animals that capture or trap prey via stealth, luring or by (typically instinctive) strategies utilizing an element of surprise. Unlike pursuit predators, who chase to capture prey us ...
, using its large eyes primarily for prey-detection rather than engaging in active hunting.
Predation
Many sperm whales have scars on their backs, believed to be caused by the hooks of colossal squid. Colossal squid are a major prey item for sperm whales in the Antarctic; 14% of the squid beaks found in the stomachs of these sperm whales are those of the colossal squid, which indicates that colossal squid make up 77% of the
biomass
Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bi ...
consumed by these whales. Many other animals also feed on colossal squid, including
beaked whale
Beaked whales (systematic name Ziphiidae) are a family of cetaceans noted as being one of the least known groups of mammals because of their deep-sea habitat and apparent low abundance. Only three or four of the 24 species are reasonably well-k ...
s (such as the
southern bottlenose whale
The southern bottlenose whale (''Hyperoodon planifrons'') is a species of whale, in the Ziphiid family, one of two members of the genus ''Hyperoodon''. Seldom observed, the southern bottlenose whale is resident in Antarctic waters. The species wa ...
),
pilot whale
Pilot whales are cetaceans belonging to the genus ''Globicephala''. The two extant species are the long-finned pilot whale (''G. melas'') and the short-finned pilot whale (''G. macrorhynchus''). The two are not readily distinguishable at sea, ...
s,
southern elephant seal
The southern elephant seal (''Mirounga leonina'') is one of two species of elephant seals. It is the largest member of the clade Pinnipedia and the order Carnivora, as well as the largest extant marine mammal that is not a cetacean. It gets it ...
s,
Patagonian toothfish
The Patagonian toothfish (''Dissostichus eleginoides'') is a species of notothen found in cold waters () between depths of in the southern Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans and Southern Ocean on seamounts and continental shelves around most ...
,
southern sleeper shark
The southern sleeper shark or Whitley's sleeper shark (''Somniosus antarcticus'') is a deepwater benthopelagic sleeper shark of the family Somniosidae found in the southern Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Taxonomy
It was formerly sometimes ...
s (''Somniosus antarcticus''),
Antarctic toothfish, and
albatross
Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacifi ...
es (e.g., the
wandering and
sooty albatross
The sooty albatross, dark-mantled sooty albatross or dark-mantled albatross,BirdLife International (2008b) (''Phoebetria fusca''), is a species of bird in the albatross family. They breed on sub-Antarctic islands and range at sea across the S ...
es).
However, beaks from mature adults have only been recovered from large predators (i.e. sperm whales and southern sleeper sharks), while the other predators only eat juveniles or young adults.
Reproduction
Little is known about the colossal squid's reproductive cycle although the colossal squid does have two distinct sexes. Many species of squid, however, develop sex-specific organs as they age and develop.
The adult female colossal squid has been discovered in much shallower waters which likely implies that females spawn in shallower waters than their normal depth.
Additionally, the colossal squid has a high possible
fecundity
Fecundity is defined in two ways; in human demography, it is the potential for reproduction of a recorded population as opposed to a sole organism, while in population biology, it is considered similar to fertility, the natural capability to pr ...
reaching over 4.2 million
oocyte
An oocyte (, ), oöcyte, or ovocyte is a female gametocyte or germ cell involved in reproduction. In other words, it is an immature ovum, or egg cell. An oocyte is produced in a female fetus in the ovary during female gametogenesis. The female ...
s which is quite unique compared to other squids in such cold waters.
Colossal squid oocytes have been observed at sizes ranging from as large as 3.2x2.1 mm to as small as 1.4x0.5 mm. Sampling of colossal squid ovaries show an average of 2175 eggs per gram.
Young squid are thought to spawn near the summer time at surface temperatures of .
Vision
For pelagic organisms of similar weight to the colossal squid, such as the swordfish, the average eye diameter required for visual detection is 10 cm, but colossal squid's are as large as 27 cm.
The allowed increase in visual detection strategies, including reduced diffraction blurring and greater contrast distinction, must be extremely beneficial to the colossal squid to justify the large energetic expenses to grow, move, camouflage, and maintain these eyes.
The colossal squid's increased pupil size has been mathematically proven to overcome the visual complications of the pelagic zone (the combination of downwelling daylight, bioluminescence, and light scattering with increasing distance), especially by monitoring larger volumes of water at once and by detecting long-range changes in plankton bioluminescence via the physical disruption of large moving objects (e.g., sperm whales).
The colossal squid's eyes glow in the dark via long rectangularly shaped light-producing
photophore
A photophore is a glandular organ that appears as luminous spots on various marine animals, including fish and cephalopods. The organ can be simple, or as complex as the human eye; equipped with lenses, shutters, color filters and reflectors, ...
s located next to the lens on the front of both eyeballs.
Symbiotic bacteria reside within these photophores and luminesce through chemical reaction.
It is hypothesized that the colossal squid's eyes can detect predator movement beyond 120 m, which is the upper limit of the sperm whale's sonar range.
Hearing
Although squid cannot hear sound, they can detect the movement of sound waves via organs called
statocyst
The statocyst is a balance sensory receptor present in some aquatic invertebrates, including bivalves, cnidarians, ctenophorans, echinoderms, cephalopods, and crustaceans. A similar structure is also found in ''Xenoturbella''. The statocyst cons ...
s (similar to the human
cochlea
The cochlea is the part of the inner ear involved in hearing. It is a spiral-shaped cavity in the bony labyrinth, in humans making 2.75 turns around its axis, the modiolus. A core component of the cochlea is the Organ of Corti, the sensory org ...
).
Squid statocysts likely respond to low frequency sounds less than 500 Hz, similar to pelagic fish.
Colossal squid are essentially deaf to high frequencies (like whale
sonar
Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...
), so they rely largely on visual detection mechanisms to avoid predation.
Taxonomy and history
The colossal squid, species ''Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni'', was discovered in 1925.
This species belongs to the class Cephalopoda and family Cranchiidae.
Most of the time, full colossal squid specimens are not collected; as of 2015, only 12 complete colossal squids had ever been recorded with only half of these being full adults.
Commonly, beak remnants of the colossal squid are collected; 55 beaks of colossal squids have been recorded in total.
Less commonly (four times), a fin, mantle, arm or tentacle of a colossal squid was collected.
Notable discoveries
First specimens
The species was first discovered in the form of two arm crowns found in the stomach of a
sperm whale
The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the genus ''Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the sperm whale famil ...
in the winter of 1924–1925.
This species, then named ''Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni'' after E. Hamilton who made the initial discovery, was formally described by
Guy Coburn Robson
Guy Coburn Robson (1888–1945) was a British zoologist, specializing in Mollusca, who first named and described '' Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni'', the colossal squid.
Robson studied at the marine biological station in Naples, and joined the staff ...
in 1925.
Entire specimens
In 1981, a
Soviet Russian
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
trawler in the
Ross Sea
The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica, between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land and within the Ross Embayment, and is the southernmost sea on Earth. It derives its name from the British explorer James Clark Ross who vi ...
, off the coast of
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...
, caught a large squid with a total length of over , which was later identified as an immature female of ''M. hamiltoni''.
[Ellis, R. 1998. '']The Search for the Giant Squid
''The Search for the Giant Squid'' is a non-fiction book by Richard Ellis on the biology, history and mythology of the giant squid of the genus '' Architeuthis''. It was well received upon its release in 1998. Though soon rendered outdated by ...
''. The Lyons Press. In 2003, a complete specimen of a subadult female was found near the surface with a total length of and a mantle length of 2.5 m (8 feet 3 inches).
In 2005, the first full living specimen was captured at a depth of while taking a
toothfish
''Dissostichus'', the toothfish, is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Nototheniidae, the notothens or cod icefish. These fish are found in the Southern Hemisphere. Toothfish are marketed in the United States as Chilean s ...
from a
longline off
South Georgia Island
South Georgia ( es, Isla San Pedro) is an island in the South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. Stretching in the east ...
.
Although the mantle was not brought aboard, its length was estimated at over 2.5 m (8 feet 3 inches), and the tentacles measured .
The animal is thought to have weighed between .
Largest known specimen
The largest recorded specimen was a female, which are thought to be larger than males, captured in February 2007 by a New Zealand fishing boat in the Ross Sea off of Antarctica.
The squid was close to dead when it was captured and subsequently was taken back to New Zealand for scientific study.
The specimen was initially estimated to measure about 10 meters in total length and weigh about 450 kg
= Defrosting and dissection, April–May 2008
=
Thawing and dissection of the specimen took place at the
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...
.
AUT
AUT may refer to the following.
Locations
*Austria (ISO 3166-1 country code)
*Agongointo-Zoungoudo Underground Town, Benin
*Aktio–Preveza Undersea Tunnel, Greece
*Airstrip on Atauro Island, East Timor (IATA airport code)
Organizations
*Arriva ...
biologist
Steve O'Shea,
Tsunemi Kubodera
is a Japanese zoologist with the National Museum of Nature and Science. On September 30, 2004, Kubodera and his team became the first people to ''photograph'' a live giant squid in its natural habitat.Kubodera, T. & K. Mori 2005First-ever observa ...
, and AUT biologist Kat Bolstad were invited to the museum to aid in the process.
[Te Papa's Specimen: The Thawing and Examination](_blank)
. Tepapa.govt.nz. Retrieved on 30 September 2011. Media reports suggested scientists at the museum were considering using a giant microwave to defrost the squid because thawing it at room temperature would take several days and it would likely begin to decompose on the outside while the core remained frozen.
However, they later opted for the more conventional approach of thawing the specimen in a bath of salt water. After thawing, it was found that the specimen was 495 kg with a mantle length of 2.5 m and total length of only 4.2 m, probably because the tentacles shrank once the squid was dead.
Parts of the specimen have been examined:
*The beak is considerably smaller than some found in the stomachs of
sperm whale
The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the genus ''Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the sperm whale famil ...
s,
suggesting other colossal squid are much larger than this one.
*The eye is wide, with a lens across. This is the largest eye of any known animal.
These measurements are of the partly collapsed specimen; alive, the eye was probably 30
to 40 cm (12 to 16 in) across.
*Inspection of the specimen with an endoscope revealed
ovaries
The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. T ...
containing thousands of eggs.
=Exhibition
=
The
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...
began displaying this specimen in an exhibition that opened on 13 December 2008; however the exhibition was closed in 2018 and was slated to return in 2019. The exhibition is now open again for public viewing at Te Papa.
Second specimen
In August 2014, Te Papa received a second colossal squid, captured in early 2014.
The specimen was also female, measuring long and weighing approximately .
Conservation status
The colossal squid has been assessed as "
least concern
A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...
" on the
IUCN Red List
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...
.
[ Furthermore, colossal squid are not targeted by fishermen; rather, they are only caught when they attempt to feed on fish caught on hooks. Additionally, due to their habitat, interactions between humans and colossal squid are considered rare.]
See also
*Kraken
The kraken () is a legendary sea monster of enormous size said to appear off the coasts of Norway.
Kraken, the subject of sailors' superstitions and mythos, was first described in the modern age at the turn of the 18th century, in a travelogu ...
*Giant squid
The giant squid (''Architeuthis dux'') is a species of deep-ocean dwelling squid in the family Architeuthidae. It can grow to a tremendous size, offering an example of abyssal gigantism: recent estimates put the maximum size at around Trace ...
References
Further reading
*
* Klumov, S.K. & V.L. Yukhov 1975. ''Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni'' Robson, 1925 (Cephalopoda, Oegopsida). ''Antarktika Doklady Komission'' 14: 159–189. nglish translation: TT 81–59176, Al Ahram Center for Scientific Translations*
*
External Links
Tree of Life web project: ''Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni''
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa(Te Papa) Colossal Squid Specimen Information
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa(Te Papa) Colossal Squid Images and Video
Tonmo.com: Giant Squid and Colossal Squid Fact Sheet
''New Zealand Herald'': Fishermen haul in world's biggest squid
BBC: Super squid surfaces in Antarctic
MarineBio: ''Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q378330, from2=Q2345488
Squid
Fauna of the Southern Ocean
Fauna of Antarctica
Bioluminescent molluscs
Cenozoic cephalopods
Pliocene animals
Molluscs described in 1925