''Moroteuthopsis longimana'', also known as the giant warty squid or longarm octopus squid,O'Shea, S. 2005 ''Kondakovia longimana'' In: Giant Squid and Colossal Squid Fact Sheet. The Octopus News Magazine Online. is a large species of
hooked squid
The hooked squid, family Onychoteuthidae, currently comprise about 20–25 species (several known from only single life stages and thus unconfirmed), in six or seven genera. They range in mature mantle length from 7 cm to a suggested length ...
. It attains a
mantle
A mantle is a piece of clothing, a type of cloak. Several other meanings are derived from that.
Mantle may refer to:
*Mantle (clothing), a cloak-like garment worn mainly by women as fashionable outerwear
**Mantle (vesture), an Eastern Orthodox ve ...
length of at least 85 cm and probably over 1.15 m. The largest complete specimen of this species, measuring 2.3 m in total length, was found in Antarctica in 2000.
Description
''M. longimana'' is a large squid, the adults can grow to a
mantle
A mantle is a piece of clothing, a type of cloak. Several other meanings are derived from that.
Mantle may refer to:
*Mantle (clothing), a cloak-like garment worn mainly by women as fashionable outerwear
**Mantle (vesture), an Eastern Orthodox ve ...
length of 740 mm, which is characterised by the presence of 33 hooks and marginal suckers throughout the tentacular club during subadult years. The gladius of this species is not visible beneath the skin in the dorsal midline. ''M. longimana'' possesses three nuchal folds.
Type material
The
type material
In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...
of this species, consisting of three specimens caught at the surface and a depth of 50 m, was collected just north of the
''M. longimana'' occurs in epipelagic and mesopelagic waters of the Southern Ocean. Its range may be circumpolar with an Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic distribution, stretching as far north as
South Georgia
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†...
This squid is eaten by several predators in the Southern Ocean, mainly sharks ( sleeper sharks and
porbeagle
The porbeagle (''Lamna nasus'') is a species of mackerel shark in the family Lamnidae, distributed widely in the cold and temperate marine waters of the North Atlantic and Southern Hemisphere. In the North Pacific, its ecological equivalent is ...
s, accounting for 21% and 19% of the cephalopod biomass consumed by each shark, respectively),
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,
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
penguin
Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...
s.
Several prey have been identified for the diet of ''M. longimana'', with krill as the main source of food. However, indirect methods have pointed for other high trophic level prey as other crustaceans and lanternfish.