DUDE! Giant Squid pics!!!!!!!

[summer_jackel]

Japanese researchers have photographed an adult Archeteuthis in the wild, feeding! And OMG the thing is just...beautiful!!!!

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8064

http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2005/09/28/giant_squid_20050928.html

Want to know about their sex lives?
http://www.cdnn.info/news/eco/e050925.html

I am so excited.

But now I'm gonna go back to painting the loft. Which is. Um. A big task. *looks balefully at the bright blue-painted loft and her can of translucent white paint.*

Comments

[the-twf.livejournal.com]

I'm something of a Archeteuthis fanatic, so all this is quite a treat for me.

I wonder how long it'll be before animal rights gets all pissy over how they snagged it...

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Yay, a fellow teuthophile! ;D

well, it is a shame that it lost a tentacle, but then...it only lost part of one, it does have others, and really...how much worse than most fishing 'bycatch'?

I love the fact that this confirms that they are swift, agile predators. There's been so much debate about that. I always cherished the theory that we haven't seen them much simply because they are too alert and quick to be long bothered by our sluggish undersea equipment. Yay squids!

[camelai.livejournal.com]

I was sooo excited to see that news last night! I don't know much about the giant squid in particular, but I am a Marine Biology student, so you know this is exciting to me! And it gave me a good excuse to talk to my Invertebrate Zoology prof today, so that was awesome. I love that they found it by following sperm whales. Apparently people have tried attaching cameras to sperm whales to try and get footage of the squid. Which for some reason really reminds me of Dr. Evil wanting "sharks with laser beams attached to their heads!"
Anyway. Yay squids!