''Onykia robusta'', also known as the robust clubhook squid and often cited by the older name ''Moroteuthis robusta'',
is a species of
squid in the family
Onychoteuthidae. Reaching a
mantle length of ,
[Norman, M.D. 2000. ''Cephalopods: A World Guide''. ConchBooks.] it is the largest member of its family and
one of the largest of all cephalopods. The tentacular clubs are slender, containing 15–18 club hooks.
Arms of the species contain 50–60 suckers, and grow to 90–100% of the mantle length. It is found primarily in the boreal to
Temperate Northern Pacific.
Confusion with ''Architeuthis''
Some time before 1993, a large individual of ''O. robusta'' was photographed by
Japanese diver Kubota H.
in shallow water off southern
Japan.
[Ellis, R. 1998. ''The Search for the Giant Squid''. The Lyons Press.] In this image, the animal, which appears to be sick or dying, is shown with a diver, although the use of a
wide-angle lens
In photography and cinematography, a wide-angle lens refers to a lens whose focal length is substantially smaller than the focal length of a normal lens for a given film plane. This type of lens allows more of the scene to be included in the ...
exaggerates its size.
A video of the same squid appears in a Japanese made-for-television film.
The image was published in the 1993 book ''European Seashells'' by
Guido T. Poppe and Goto Yoshihiro, where it was identified as ''Architeuthis dux'', 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 Trac ...
, and said to have been taken in the
North Atlantic.
[Poppe, G.T. & Y. Goto. 1993. ''European Seashells''. Hemmen.] If true, this image would represent the earliest known photograph of a live giant squid.
In ''
The Search for the Giant Squid'' (1998),
Richard Ellis wrote of this photograph:
"For a moment, I thought that some obscure photograph had captured the most elusive image in natural history. Fortunately for those who have devoted their lives to searching for ''Architeuthis'', this was only an aberration, a case of mistaken identity."
More than a decade later, the first photographs of a true live giant squid in the wild were taken, on September 30, 2004.
[Kubodera, T. & K. Mori. 2005. ''Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences'', 272(1581):2583–2586.]
See also
*
Cephalopod size
Cephalopods vary enormously in size. The smallest are only about long and weigh less than at maturity, while the largest—the giant and colossal squids—can exceed in length and weigh close to half a tonne (), making them the largest living ...
References
* Chambers, S. 2008
It’s a sea monster! (Sort of) ''The World Link'', June 3, 2008.
Third-largest cephalopod ''
Siuslaw News'', August 4, 2008.
External links
Squid
Molluscs described in 1876
Molluscs of the Pacific Ocean
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