''Onykia robusta'', also known as the robust clubhook squid and often cited by the older name ''Moroteuthis robusta'', is a species of

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 ...

in the family

Onychoteuthidae 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 ...

. Reaching 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 ,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 Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...

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 The Temperate Northern Pacific is a biogeographic region of the Earth's seas, comprising the temperate waters of the northern Pacific Ocean. The Temperate Northern Pacific connects, via the Bering Sea, to the Arctic marine realm, which includes ...

Confusion with ''Architeuthis''

Some time before 1993, a large individual of ''O. robusta'' was photographed by

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese diver Kubota H. in shallow water off southern

.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 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, and said to have been taken in the

North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...

.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.

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 {{squid-stub

Confusion with ''Architeuthis''

See also

References

External links