
Giant Squid, Elusive Creature of the Deep, Gets a Vivid Close-Up - azatris
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/30/science/giant-squid-video-japan.html
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rm_-rf_slash
I was recently at a museum in Adelaide, Australia, which featured a scale
giant squid exhibit. Story goes the museum cleared out a shaft for a new
elevator but apparently the British manufacturers made a sizing mistake and an
entirely new shaft and elevator had to be made, the question being what to do
with the old one. Apparently a friend of the museum just happened to have a
giant squid model on hand and donated it. The entire display stands at a
length of four stories.

Imagine that, coming to the ground floor and seeing the ends of the longest
tentacles. You walk up three stories and you still haven't even reached the
full height. Then imagine literally running into one of those incredibly long
tentacles at ocean depths far beyond the faintest traces of sunlight.
Terrifying.

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sandworm101
>> They can be as big as a bus, or even bigger, and yet the elusive giant
squid has hardly been spotted swimming alive in the ocean.

It's hard to read past such a false statement. A couple of their arms are
perhaps longer than a small bus, but nowhere near "bigger". It isn't even the
biggest squid (see the Colossal Squid).

Articles mentioning footage of live specimens should also note that they are
almost universally ill, near death when filmed. They do not belong near the
surface. Despite their size, these are short-lived and delicate animals prone
to injury.

Also, live specimens have been captured as far back as 2002. So all this talk
of "first time" footage is a little disingenuous. Researchers had them
swimming in tanks aboard ship more than a decade ago.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20110710133329/http://animal.dis...](https://web.archive.org/web/20110710133329/http://animal.discovery.com/news/briefs/200202/giantsquid.html)

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Retric
There is a large range of bus sizes, a 40' giant squid would look larger than
a small bus ex:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_bus#/media/File:Blue_Bi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_bus#/media/File:Blue_Bird_Number_1_bus.jpg)
or
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Bird_Micro_Bird#/media/Fi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Bird_Micro_Bird#/media/File:%2700-%2702_Ford_E-350_School_Bus.JPG).
But smaller than an extra large 97 seat school bus.

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CognitiveLens
I think the point is that 'bigger' implies that the squid is actually larger
than a bus, not just longer in one dimension. By the logic of the article, I
have a garden hose that's bigger than a bus.

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Retric
In the water with legs akimbo, it's going to be longer, wider, and taller than
a small bus.
[http://www.animalstown.com/animals/s/squid/wallpapers/squid-...](http://www.animalstown.com/animals/s/squid/wallpapers/squid-
wallpaper-4.jpg)

Sure, there would be a lot of space between the legs and it's still fairly
light. But, visually in the water a 40+' squid going to look huge.

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cushychicken
Beautiful! Things like this are one of the upsides of the proliferation of
cheap cameras - rare sights that would previously go unreported or disbelieved
can be easily captured. (Though it's not doing wonders for my holdout belief
in Bigfoot.)

Science question here: what's the slit between the squid's mantle (upper body)
and the eye? Is that an injury?

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pvaldes
Nah, this slit is the only normal thing about this animal.

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cushychicken
What isn't normal about it? (Aside from the fact that it's a nominally deep
sea creature in a littoral zone in this instance.)

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sandworm101
It is dying and/or much of its flesh is already dead. They should not be
white. Even if healthy, those eyes are probably blind in such light. I doubt
this animal is capable of reacting to much of anything.

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billiam
AFAIK this statement is 100% wrong. The Architeuthis, while slow moving,
looked totally healthy to the diver and bystanders that looked at it, as well
as to this amateur teuthologist (look it up). It sprayed some ink and did
exploratory movements with its tentacles that suggested it was confused rather
than sick, and while docile, moved on its own throughout all the (five)
different videos I saw. Almost certainly a juvenile, it is nonetheless in much
warmer and lighter waters that where it lives, which would explain the
constricted size of the eyes. The mottled colors are just one of many looks
this awesome animal presents to the world, reflecting stress perhaps but not
an indication of ill health at all.

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pvaldes
Sandworm is right. This is obviously an agonizing squid.

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ende
First photos of a live specimen snapped in 2005 and only a few sightings
since. It really reinforces that not all of nature has been discovered by
humans and there is still much need for exploration.

