New Deep Sea Squid

texchanchan writes: "Yahoo reports on a newly discovered species of deep-sea squid, quoting scientists as saying the creatures are very different from normal giant squids. 'New species are a dime a dozen. This is fundamentally different' in behavior and appearance -- with 10 identical long skinny arms and a jellyfish-like hunting strategy. 'We don't know of any cephalopod that has arms like that.' --Michael Vecchione of the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service. 'I had never seen anything like this creature,' oceanographer William Sager of Texas A&M says."

Comments

squidish

[CordMeyer]

All squid have ten arms, but 2 are usually much longer & skinnier than the others. It seems this one has them all the same length. the 2 longer tentacles are used for feeding, they shoot them into schools of fish & then retract them. the other 8 are for propulsion.
A Soviet tanker in 1965 came across a battle between a giant squid and a sperm whale that would have weighed around 40 tonnes. The fight continued for some time and finished far below in the depths, beyond the range of the tanker's sonar equipment. About an hour after the sighting the strangled body of the whale was found floating in the ocean. It still had the giant squid wrapped around its body. But the squid did not win - its head was found inside the stomach of the whale!

Re:squidish

[satanami69]

Urban legend?

This new squid looks like a half-breed Manta Ray/Squid.

I couldn't get enough of Discovery Channel's Search for the a Giant Squid

Re:squidish

[Psiren]

Mmmmmmm... forbidden squid... aarrrgggg...

Re:squidish

[Rogerborg]

• A Soviet tanker in 1965 came across a battle between a giant squid and a sperm whale

Referenced in several places, along with claims that Architeuthis will aggressively attack whales and ships. Bear in mind though, that the beak of an Architeuthis only opens a few inches, and is ill suited to eating anything as large as a human, let alone a 40 ton whale or a 15,000 ton ship!

This new species is certainly unusual (compared to the surface beasties that we're used to), but bear in mind that it's part of a subclass that varies in length from 6mm to 16,000mm (and nearly half a ton, that we know of).

Re:squidish

[Ami Ganguli]

The file you reference mentions the story, but doesn't claim it's a myth (it doesn't claim otherwise either).

It sounds like whales prey on the squid, but not vice-versa. It's possible that this particular whale just took a squid that was too large for it.

Re:squidish

[Marsh Jedi]

I saw that, but did not like it.
A caveat for any other documentary fanatics:

Beware all documentaries entitled "Search for the (something)". . .it by and large means that they didn't find it

Re:squidish

[inerte]

That's a fantastic story, which I got interested and did a little Google search.

But from the results you can't tell if it's true :-)

First one will say it's a mith, second it could be true, a few witness reports and more mith saying here and there....

Re:squidish

[alumshubby]

Bear in mind though, that the beak of an Architeuthis only opens a few inches, and is ill suited to eating anything as large as a human, let alone a 40 ton whale or a 15,000 ton ship!


That beak doesn't have to open all that far if it can pull its prey apart first. ISTR reading some reference to a "sea monster" that was likely an Architeuthis dux trying to tear a rudder off a World War I troopship.

Re:squidish

[defeated]

It is most likely that the squid didn't attack the whale, but vice versa. Squid are a favorite food of the sperm whale, and it has been suggested that some of the circular scars seen on the bodies of sperm whale were caused by the suckers on the end of the giant squids clubs (or cookie cutter sharks, who have circular mouths and use them to take round scoops of flesh out of their prey. Anyone further interested in Architeuthis should check out Richard Ellis' "Search for the Giant Squid". Mr. Ellis also makes the observation that some of the sea monsters sighted in the past may have been dead or dying Architeuthis floating near the surface. Good stuff!

Re:squidish

[FFFish]

The squid wasn't necessarily attempting to eat the whale. It may very well have been attempting to *not be eaten* by the whale.

Re:squidish

[Boronx]

Aren't giant squid a big part of the sperm whale diet?

Re:squidish

[squidfood]

1. Sperm whales eat many types of smaller squid (50cm or smaller mantle length) swallowing many in big gulps. It's not at all certain what size squid they eat most.

2. Size of squid beak has nothing to do with size of prey. I've got a video of a 10cm squid biting a ~15cm long fish near the head, wrapping tentacles around, and "spinning" the fish, scales flying, while the beak strips bits of meat off, "skeletonizing" the larger fish in seconds. Food found in squid stomachs is often in little little bits but coming from fish species of larger sizes.

Question?

[digitalunity]

Yeah, that's neat and all. But how's the calamari?

Re:Question?

[RFC959]

In all seriousness, probably not very good. A lot of large deep-sea squid taste like ammonia.

Re:Question?

[ThePlumber2]

Heh, I was thinking the same thing. Looks cool, but hows it taste?

Re:Question?

[Anne_Nonymous]

In my experience, squid with mantles over about 4" are very difficult to cook without making them rubbery. If you cut a big guy like this into rings, you could probably cook them up and use them as snow tires.

just wait

[Anonymous Coward]

Next thing you know, the town of Miskatonik is going to be a hustling and bustling place.
Then the pods will come and duke it out with the Great Dark Lord. This is pretty cool. First, we had FotR come out this week. Now, Lovecraftian sea beings are being discovered.
At least it wasn't discovered at Innsmouth.

squidditch

[hashinclude]

if at least 14 of these exist :)

hell no..

[Anonymous Coward]

That's no squid, that right there is an alien spacecraft, they're using the security by obscurity, and hey, where is more obscure than the depths of the ocean? Except for staying home then..

Re:hell no..

[i_m_sane]

Alien spacecraft? Squid? hummm....can someone say Sphere?

Hou je bek, jij vuile oma-verkrachter!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Je kanker moeder!!

Re:Hou je bek, jij vuile oma-verkrachter!!

[Anonymous Coward]

oh, du bist supergeil!

Re:Hou je bek, jij vuile oma-verkrachter!!

[cockeater]

ehe. vielleicht brauche ich noch ein red bull.

Sashimi chefs are waiting...

[WinAddict]

...to add the new creature to their menus. Let's have a naming contest for the new sashimi. My entry - decgu.

Re:Sashimi chefs are waiting...

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, my wife read about this on asahi.com a few hours before we got it here, and it turns out most Japanese chefs are passing on this idea because they say any sea life at that depth would be too soft and lack any texture.

It's also funny because the Japanese article basically ignores all the interesting bits about sticky tentacles etc. to focus on the culinary benefits. Different priorities, I guess...

Re:Sashimi chefs are waiting...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's also funny because the Japanese article basically ignores all the interesting bits about sticky tentacles etc.

That's because the Japanese already have a vast body of work about creatures with long sticky tentacles.

Re:Sashimi chefs are waiting...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's too bad those japanesse chefs can't pronounce that word :P

Cracken

[frankie_guasch]

Is this the (maybe) myth cracken ?

Re:Cracken

[Hektor_Troy]

Since the Kraken (of norse mythologi) was the sice of a small island, I doubt this tiny creature is the Kraken.

Re:Cracken

[krenshala]

Personally, I think the giant squid is the mythical Kraken, especially as an 80' specimen was found on a California beach a few years ago (late '80s? early '90s? ... mind like a steele sieve ...)

Re:Cracken

[defeated]

Would that have been a Globster? I vote for remnants of a giant octopus, rather than squid:)

Re:Cracken

[jandrese]

Yes, after all, nobody ever exaggerates the size of the fish when they get back to port. I don't think it's too unlikly that something like this could be the start of the Kraken myth, especially once the story is told over hundreds of year through word of mouth.

The most plausible explanation

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't it obvious what this is? It's a spawn of cthulhu! It's not a squid, but an alien monster that protects the Great Old One and works in colaboration with the Deep Ones!

I remember reading about these huge squids as a child. It's really cool to have a genuine mystery here, it's just sad that before long it'll get studied and filmed and explained and I can't hope for the Cthulhu link anymore. ;-)

Did they ever discover any unexplained ruins in the Antarctic or in central Australia?

Re:The most plausible explanation

[sparkyz]

Actually, it looks less like the spawn of Cthulhu and more like the anal probe Cartman had in South Park season 2. Keep your cows and little brothers indoors.

Re:The most plausible explanation

[phorge]

That was actually Season 1, episode 1 if I remember correctly.

Re:The most plausible explanation

[Glytch]

You read about Cthulu as a child? Whoa.

Re:The most plausible explanation

[discogravy]

As long as the cthulhu-children don't come on land and demand the production of live-action tentacle rape movies, I'll be happy. The last thing we need is a race of Cthulhu-beings involved with the RIAA or marketing companies.


relevant link: Cthulu for president, why vote for a lesser evil?

Re:The most plausible explanation

[Snard]

I was actually thinking that this might be ...

(wait for it)

Suicide Squid!

Re:The most plausible explanation

[PONA-Boy]

I anxiously await the coming of the Yog-Sothoth!!

Ereb Cthulu!!! Charles Dexter Ward was right!!!

Re:The most plausible explanation

[jonerik]

The last thing we need is a race of Cthulhu-beings involved with the RIAA or marketing companies.

You mean they're not already?!?!

Re:The most plausible explanation

[Tackhead]

> > As long as the cthulhu-children don't come on land and demand the production of live-action tentacle rape movies, I'll be happy. The last thing we need is a race of Cthulhu-beings involved with the RIAA or marketing companies.
>
> You mean they're not already?!?!

Probably not. Cthulhu has better taste than that.

(Which is a pity, as I'd pay good money to see Hilary Rosen and Jack Valenti as crunchy Cthulhu-snacks. I'd offer 'em to Yog-Sothoth, but he's not interested... they ain't got no souls to eat.)

Re:The most plausible explanation

[proj_2501]

There are live-action La Blue Girl tapes. You can buy them at RightStuf

How sqidish

[teaserX]

The article is a little light on details. Other than the ten legs nothing else seems to suggest this is a squid. It feeds like a jellyfish, it looks like a jellfish(to me). Radial symetry is characteristic of jellyfish so ten legs of equal lenght don't rule out jellyfish. Nothing is mentioned about the rigidity of the beast which would point in the direction of the squid. Tranceparency (can't tell from the photo) might indicate jellyfish, but not rule out squid, depending on internal structures that might be seen. Based solely on the article I am inclined to decalre it a jellyfish. Perhaps more than five or ten minutes of behavioral observation and a captured specimen to study would be helpful.

Re:How sqidish

[CottonEyedJoe]

A cursory examination of the photo would reveal to nearly ANY biologist (marine or not, though my experience is in marine invertebrates) that this is NOT a scyphozoan ("Jellyfish"), or even a Cnidarian (supergroup containing jellyfish, corals, anemone's, hydras etc...) If you really didnt want to believe this is a squid, you might suppose it is a tentacled ctenophore (comb jelly which most people have never heard of but are really quite common).

From looking at the picture the animal appears to "fly" using its two HUGE fins (the fins are squid features). The mantle (head covering) is very narrow at the dorsal end (the end at the top of the picture Note to those who know what dorsal means: YES this IS the dorsal side of a squid...) while being fairly broad at the ventral side to accomodate (we presume) the mouth and organs.

The features of this animal are not at all un-squidlike, using occams razor and the BIOLOGICAL features of the animal (not just the way it looks to some shmo) its easy to hypothesize that this is a squid.

Take a look at the Pteropod Sea Angel (Clione) and tell me its a snail. When you can do that successfully come back and comment on this animal. (Note to others: Clione is VERY VERY cool, take a look at the pics if this /. story interested you)

Re:How sqidish

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course it has squid features. It certainly ins't a jellyfish, but it does have unsquid like characteristics also. If you want to pick some characteristics (the fins) as more important than others (equal length tapered tentacles), fine. Unless one is captured it's stupid to try making a definate classification.

ps Why should I be impressed when one /. kiddie can be condescending to another? Instead of pretending to be an omniscent expert, why not just make your point as well as possible?

Re:How sqidish

[leshert]

Unless one is captured it's stupid to try making a definate classification.

Aha... but one has been captured, or some some scientists think. According to the NPR report yesterday there is a small squid in a jar in (IIRC) the Smithsonian. The gent who wrote the article in Science this month is hypothesizing that it may be a juvenile of the same species as the large squid that has been captured on video.

Re:How sqidish

[Shook]

You might have noticed in the article that they have found juvenile specimens of this creature. I was hearing an interview with one of the scientists on the radio. He said they had a pickled specimens of a 6-inch baby in the Smithsonian. So I'm assumming they have used that actual specimen to determine it is a squid, and not a jelly.

Remember how diverse cephalapods are. They include everything from garden slugs, to oysters, to giant squids.

Re:How sqidish

[Anonymous Coward]

Well if they actually have one, cool. I'm curious about some of the organism's details.

Re:How sqidish

[BluBrick]

I had never seen anything like this creature, Sager told Science. It just hung there, looking at us, as if suddenly seeing ALVIN float up like a whale with lights was no big deal.

The fact that it was "looking at us" suggests that this animal has reasonably well developed eyes, which is definitely a characteristic absent in jellyfish. Certainly some jellies may have light sensing organs, particularly those that live at great depths. But not such that you'd call them eyes.

Of course the "looking" could have been a misinterpretation of the animal's behaviour.

I wonder...

[Bowie J. Poag]

I wonder how long it will be before Microsoft sues the squid.

Re:I wonder...

[defeated]

Stop me if you've heard this one before.

Cthulhu look and feel suit

Just imagine...

[Anonymous Coward]

a beowolf cluster of these babies... with some wasabi

New squid?

[Zocalo]

Does anyone know how this new squid is going to help my web cache performance, and where are the changelog and download URLs?

Apeal to authority

[autopr0n]

Not be an ass (like I usualy am) but I just want to point out that these marine biologiests probably have a lot more experiance with sea life and more data about this thing then some slashdotter who's read a Yahoo! news artical.

Re:Apeal to authority

[teaserX]

Oh they're biologiests . Well then it must be a squid to be sure.

Re:Apeal to authority

[autopr0n]

What does my ablity to spell have to do with their ablity to classify sea creatures?

Re:Apeal to authority

[Da Masta]

Who gives a fuck who says what? Fuck marine biologists and and let them say whatever, cause I was thinking the exact same thing. What exactly made them call this a squid, rather than a jellyfish? I'm not questioning the marine biologist's decision, and I dont think TeaserX was either. What I'd like to know is what key differences might I have overlooked that gives us the differences between squid and jellyfish?

And sorry autopr0n, but you were being an ass. I figured slashdot, out of all places, would never question a question of authority. (Jee, it's the RECORD COMPANY that said mp3'z are ill3g4l. I think they know what they are talking about cause they know music! ;-)

Re:Apeal to authority

[Happy go Lucky]

What exactly made them call this a squid, rather than a jellyfish? I'm not questioning the marine biologist's decision, and I dont think TeaserX was either. What I'd like to know is what key differences might I have overlooked that gives us the differences between squid and jellyfish?

Some very significant differences. They have differentiated tissue-muscles separate from skin, an actual digestive tract, and probably the most-developed nervous system of all of the invertebrates, including eyes structured similarly to ours. Squid also have an actual circulatory system, but something that actually functions almost like a heart. And squids are actually bilaterally symmetrical. In plain English, that means there's one plane down which you can split a squid, and the two parts will be mirror images of each other.

OTOH, jellyfish are like anemones and hydrae. That means they're undifferentiated. Their tissues are only two cells thick, because each cell needs to be exposed to seawater in order to get oxygen or nutrients. They're undifferentiated, meaning they don't have different types of cells. They have no real nervous system at all. Nor do they have a circulatory system. They're radially symmetrical, meaning that any radial section will be pretty much identical to any other.

Re:Apeal to authority

[Lars T.]

Yeah, what do biologists know, they say that penguins are birds, and that bats aren't, when those animals behaviour proves those biologist wrong.

Well, maybe it isn't that simple.

Re:Apeal to authority

[Rand Race]

Yea. Fuck computer geeks too, cause I thought when I saw the new KDE screenshots it was Windows but these so-called experts tell me it's some Unix variant. Bullshit, it looks like windows to me. Whay exactly makes this Unix and not Windows? I mean, what key differences did I overlook that gives us the difference between KDE and Windows?

If that sounds stupid to us (as it was meant to), what you guys are saying sounds exactly the same to marine biologists.

And 'never question a question of authority'? You're just putting your unthinking belief at one more remove. Question everything, the basis of Science.

Deep Sea the second to last frontier...

[Merik]

Considering that the earth 90% water and how little we have catalouged the deep sea, its going to be interestig to see what we find...

The deep sea pages at Whitman College have some cool pictures of wierd deep sea creatures.

The Beastiary at NOVA also has a decent rundown of whats down there.

Re:Deep Sea the second to last frontier...

[kiwimate]

The earth [is] 90% water

??

I thought it was 70% water.

Bugger...that global warming effect really is playing havoc.

Re:Deep Sea the second to last frontier...

[SuiteSisterMary]

70 percent of the surface of the eart is blue and wet. If you take all of the material on the earth, to a depth of however many miles down the top layer of the earth is, you'll find that 90 percent of that material is water. I think.

Re:Deep Sea the second to last frontier...

[Anonymous Coward]

Go down all the way to center, and it sure won't be 90%.

Re:Deep Sea the second to last frontier...

[-brazil-]

The opposite is the case. If you go down, there's less overall water content that on the surface.

Re:Deep Sea the second to last frontier...

[Anonymous Coward]

Considering that the earth 90% water and how little we have catalouged the deep sea, its going to be interestig to see what we find...

I assume you mean the surface of the earth, and the figure is more like 70%. If you measure by mass, water accounts for less than 0.1% of the earth. Remember, under the water is more rock.

Re:Deep Sea the second to last frontier...

[Ian Peon]

I was lucky enough to be the geek to program the control system for Monterey Bay Aquarium's deep link exhibit.

Sitting in that theater for days on end, tweaking my code so things would run just right, and watching the live video feed coming in off the submersibles. VERY COOL!

One of the days I was up there, I chanced to watch them run into (literally) into this strange critter that looked like a long string of translucent beads - each bead about the size of your fist with a large red nucleus. After a minute or so of looking at it draped across the sub, they backed the sub up, and tried to look over the thing, but it drobbed to the depths before they could see much of it.

Kinda curious, I leaned over to the marine biologist who was troubleshooting our microwave feed and asked him what it was... well, he was already staring at the screen slackjawed and muttered "I, I, I dunno..."

Re:Deep Sea the second to last frontier...

[thogard]

about 90% of the volume of the planet that has life is water....

Re:Deep Sea the second to last frontier...

[snake_dad]

Are you trolling? Deepest point in ocean is about 10 ,000 meter. Maybe even 11 or 12, don't remember. Radius of Earth is quite a bit more, unless ofcourse you are one of those flat-earth believers.

Link w/Video

[Anonymous Coward]

Here is a Link with video. Didn't test it though as I don't have the required Realplayer at work.

Re:Link w/Video

[Merik]

moves like something out of the Abyss(the movie)

Not a squid

[Nephrite]

As far as I can tell, this is not a squid but rather a new kind of jellyfish.

Here is my reasons

1. All tentacles are of same size
2. They are getting thinner at the end and there is no visible suckers on them
3. The whole thing is radially symmetric except the two big 'wings' which are attached to the sides of its tube-like body
4. No eyes visible
5. As the article itself states the thing uses jellyfish hunting strategy
6. The thing seems a bit transparent but there is no internal organs visible

So judging from what I just said, it could be a Hydrozoa family jellyfish or considering the 'wings' a Ctenophora family jellyfish.

That's it. Maybe I'm wrong but those are the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the photo.

Disclaimerthe above is just an assumption based on high school zoology course I took about ten years ago and of course may be incorrect

Re:Not a squid

[markj02]

These things apparently can move quite fast and in a coordinated way. That goes way beyond what jellyfish are capable of. A biologist looking at a moving video image would be very unlikely to confuse the two, and I suspect lots of expert marine biologists have looked at them.

Re:Not a squid

[Marsh Jedi]

Uh, I would trust the scientists, dude.

Yeah, from the video alone, you could be right, but a quick look at one would probably scream chordate-- CNS, circulatory system, etc.

Once you've got that, a cephalopod starts looking like your only option.

C'mon. A Nautilus is pretty fsck'd up looking too--it looks like a bad guy from Metroid more than anything else.

Re:Not a squid

[the_2nd_coming]

who is to say that a Jelly fish can not evolve to move like that?

lets see, which one has less evolving to do, a squid to a jelly ish or a jelly fish to a squid?

the Jelly fishes have it.

Re:Not a squid

[the_2nd_coming]

so I assume you trust news reporters too, eh?

I will wait until they catch one and can do a full taxonomic study before I accept any statment on what it is.

Re:Not a squid

[archen]

It seems to me like there are a lot of people chasing their tails around about whether it's a squid or a jellyfish. Well if it doesn't really fit into either category, doesn't mean that it is something ELSE? God forbid we have to change the books.

Therefore I propose:

half squid + half jellyfish = Jellysquish

Re:Not a squid

[RFC959]

All tentacles are of same size

This would not necessarily be unique to this squid. Vampyroteuthis infernalis (OK, not technically a "squid", but a cephalopod) appears to have eight arms of equal length, until you examine it very closely. (As a side note, Vampyroteuthis is ugly as sin.) Then again, we barely know what this thing is yet. Vampyroteuthis was originally thought to be an octopus, and is considered to have rather jellyfish-like behavior, and ended up getting put in its own taxonomic category, so the magnapinnidae could be something in their own class too.

As for "no eyes visible" and "transparent"...we've got one not-very-good photo; the scientists say they videotaped it for up to ten minutes. I think I'll go with their judgement. Besides which eyelessness is not unknown among deep-sea creatures either, like the hagfish. So, an eyeless, mostly symmetric squid that behaves like a jellyfish...it would be a weird squid, but it could still be one.

Re:Not a squid

[axolotl_farmer]

It looks like a Cephalopod to me

1: If this is an ancient group, maybe the two longer arms on squid are a specialization.

2: Well, ordinary squid tentacles does get thinner toward the ends too.

3: Most jellyfish have several more than 10 tentacles. The two 'wings' looks like the same structure are the fins on squid and cuttlefish to me. There are other squid that have 10 equally long arms, the Belemnoidea.

Read more about Cephalopods at http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree/eukaryotes/anima ls/mollusca/cephalopoda/coleoidea/coleoidea.html

I am a biologist, but not a marine biologist. I do hope someone catches one of these creatures. Wonder what its closest relatives (among other Cephalopods)are...

Re:Not a squid

[boojum.cat]

Actually, look closely at the structure of the legs, and compare to this picture. It's an enormous virus! And, boy, are we in trouble.

Re:Not a squid

[markj02]

Squid are among the most complex invertebrates while jellyfish are pretty much at the bottom of the evolutionary ladder. Squid have brains, muscles, a digestive tract, and circulation. An animal can't fake having those things any more than a bicycle can fake having a motorcycle engine. Jellyfish don't even have a mesoderm. It's a lot easier for squid to adopt jellyfish-like hunting strategies than for jellyfish to become anything like a squid.

Re:Not a squid

[psamuels]

but a quick look at one would probably scream chordate-- CNS, circulatory system, etc. Once you've got that, a cephalopod starts looking like your only option.

Ummm, I don't claim to be a biologist, and my taxonomy sucks, but cephalopods aren't chordates. Chordata is the phylum which consists mostly of vertebrates.

Movie of it moving...

[Merik]

watch it swim

(requires realplayer)

Re:Movie of it moving...

[Anonymous Coward]

My god!!!

Look at the movie---it's that chicken alien thing from The Abyss!!! Tell me it's not!

bp

!0 miles away on the same coast line...

[Thaidog]

...she said: "he had his arms all over me... he just wouldn't let go... A completely unrelated issue, of course.

We live in interesting times.

[Apuleius]

First underwater ruins are found, now
new forms of squid.. Apropos, any news
from the boys at McMurdo Station?

Re:We live in interesting times.

[SQL Error]

Could it be?

Slashdot fthagn! Ia Slashdot! Ia! Ia!

News for nerds, squid that matter

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this news? If I had wanted information about the latest squid releases, I would have gone to freshsquid.

Re:News for nerds, squid that matter

[btrain]

I think freshsquid.com would be for the download.
For the stuff that matters you need to go to squiddot.org

This is what happens...

[Anonymous Coward]

This is what happens to those sponge toys that you flush down the toilet.

Pictures and video...

[Malk-a-mite]

http://whyfiles.org/shorties/094squid/index.html

Couple of photos I haven't seen on other sites here - as well as a video of it swimming (in QT).

Iron Chef

[invid]

I saw Morimoto make a sashimi using one of those. The challanger fought back with a daring squid fondu, but to no avail. Once again, the Iron Chef reigned supreme!

How long before....

[SonnicJohnny]

we get to see this on Iron Chef?

Doesn't this look like..

[CamelTrader]

Does anyone else notice the startling similarity between this beast and an Alien face-hugger? I sure as hell ain't goin' deep sea divin any time soon. Just as long as none of those researching fools try to bring one back to "study" it...

If they have not cought it yet......

[the_2nd_coming]

Then how the hell do they know it is a squid?

it looks like a squid(sort of) but it acts like a jelly fish.......

what if it is a deep sea Jelly fish? jelly fish can grow to be 23 feet, perhaps this jelly fish developed a look like a squid because that shape is the best to have for such depths...I mean a normal Jelly fish would be crushed under the pressure so why not evelve a body structure like that.

and as for Giant squid, I am still waiting for a live adult to be cought, so far only dead ones have been washed up and the tails of british sailers from WWII is all we have as evidence that they do come to the surface
(in WWII british sailers had red Life vests, on one ship, after the germans sunk it, a good 10 or so sailers were taken by Giant squid right from the life boats!!)

Re:If they have not cought it yet......

[JCCyC]

Then how the hell do they know it is a squid?

They telnetted into its port 3128.

Re:If they have not cought it yet......

[.smoke]

Sitting here with mod points, just _wishing_ there were an option for -1 Appaling Spelling. I had to read that 5 times before I figured out what it meant: Tales of British sailors.

Re:If they have not cought it yet......

[t]

So to generalize your statement, if someone acts like an asshole then they are literally an asshole?

That's the most non-logical line of reasoning I've ever heard of.

Mmmmm... Sushi

[swagr]

...These are [a] real mystery ... no one has captured one ... This is well beyond a new species ... do not act or look like other squid ... We don't know of any cephalopod that has arms like that ..."

So why are they still calling it a squid?

Re:Mmmmm... Sushi

[spagma]

Right, it doesn't look or act like Volkswagon either, and they are not classifying it as one, so why do the same with squid?

Speak for yourselves scientists!

[simpleguy]

"Large Squid Baffles and Amuses Scientists"

" Fishermen are scared out there. I don't think 'amused' is the word I'd choose to describe it! "

As would say President Whitmorre to Dr Okum.

Well an encounter with such a puppy at sea certainly would not amuse *me* :)

I know the sea is a strange place but...

[Anonymous Coward]

"quoting scientists as saying the creatures are very different from normal giant squids"(my emphasis)

WTF?

Something just doesn't seem right about that sentence...

Propulsion?

[GungaDan]

Not to question the authority of anyone whose post rated "+5" - just out to satisfy my curiosity: I thought squid moved by water-jet propulsion, squeezing water through the head/body (mantle?) and directing the flow with an articulated "nozzle." How efficient could propulsion by rounded tentacle be, anyway, for a creature that swims in open water, rather than "walking" on the ocean floor?

Re:Propulsion?

[leshert]

How efficient could propulsion by rounded tentacle be[...]

It doesn't use the tentacles for swimming, according to the story on NPR yesterday. It has a pair of elephant-ear-shaped wings on top of the body, which give it both good speed and fine control, and make it to hover while it's feeding.

Current conjecture is that the tentacles are "sticky" (whether due to a substance or suction mechanisms, they didn't say). One specimen that was actually caught on video seems to be "stuck" to the submersible that was shooting the video, and coudn't easily get free. The squid appears to spread the tentacles much like a spider's web, hoping to snag smal crustaceans that bump into it.

Re:Propulsion?

[GungaDan]

Actually, I was referring to the "first post" from CordMyer, in which s/he asserted that all squid have 10 arms, that 2 were typically elongated, and that "the other 8 are used for propulsion." I'm not sure exactly how this new breed is said to get about, but I thought known squid types did move by a form of underwater jet propulsion, not by using 8 arms for propulsion. Other squid also have the "wings" on the mantle noted on the new mystery beast, but those aid in directional control, not in propulsion.

Re:Propulsion?

[kin_korn_karn]

it could be some kind of cuttlefish - don't they move by fins on their body?

Re:Propulsion?

[thogard]

it could feed like most coral by just making contact with much smaller life.

Nickelodeon...

[diesel_jackass]

So does this mean that SpongeBob will have to go jellyfishing for Squidward now?

SpongeBob

Hmmmm.

[Thaddeus]

They mostly come at night. Mostly...

Hold on...

[Uttles]

10 arms? I only saw 6... am I blind or something?

First Contact

[cybrpnk]

This creature is really an alien astronaut from the oceans of Europa....

More Videos

[CITAnonymous]

Here is the original article from Science magazine.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/294/5 55 1/2505

And here are more videos on Science's website.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/294/5 55 1/2505/DC1

These are from Science's new Brevia section, which includes some quite interesting and readable articles.

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/current/#brevi a

Working URLs to Science

[CITAnonymous]

Article

Videos

Brevia

You know what this means...

[Hard_Code]

...ok, start working on those underwater bases. Somebody hire some scientists to start researching sonic rifles. I'll go and warm up the interceptors.

Re:You know what this means...

[NonSequor]

You mean like this.

Argh...

[glowingspleen]

Argh Matey, aye ben tellin' yer fer yars that this Demon Spawn was thar, but yer never believe tha pirates, do ye?

Screw it, aye thinks it be time to go kill anoth'r World Cup Seeling Champeen.

No...

[Uttles]

... it's a Metroid!!!! Aaaahhhhhhhhh!

Also in PopSci magazine (Superchoppers Issue)

[Creepy]

I read about this in the Popular Science that I got this past Saturday (Super Choppers issue). Then today it was in my local newspaper credited to Newsday... Now this, credited to Reuters.

I didn't check who wrote the article, but I think it's exactly the same in all three cases.

I thought it strange to read about a science discovery in Popular Science before the news media - usually magazines are the last place to see new discoveries because they're put together and sent to publishing so far in advance - usually a week to two weeks. Maybe these times have been improved from my days as a jogger* at a printer (printing Disney Catalogs, day in, day out), tho.

*jogger - the guy who pulls stacks of printed pages off a printer. On newer presses joggers just pull off and stack the printed magazines. Don't know if this term is universal or just used by the Quebecor (sp? I think they're extinct anyway, so who cares), whom I worked for about 12 years ago.

NPR has more video

[BrynM]

I first heard about this on All Things Considered yesterday. NPR has more coverage and an interview with a biologist. Just listen to yesterdays broadcast (available from the link).

Re:NPR has more video

[Oily Tuna]

National Public Radio has video?

Cool ... perhaps I propose we call this exciting new development in communication 'television' meaning 'seeing from afar'.

Life imitates art

[schnitzi]

Tell me that thing doesn't look like the underwater flapping alien in The Abyss.

karma whoring

[craw]

I can't resist this cheap attempt at karma whoring. I know Will Sager. In fact I was his roommate for one year when I was an undergrad and he was a grad student. BTW, Will is a marine geophysicist/geologist, not a oceanographer nor a marine biologist. So when he says the he has never seen anything like it, well..., he's not a biologist. OTOH, great sound bite Will!

Re:karma whoring

[/dev/trash]

In what world do undergrads and grads room together?

Re:karma whoring

[craw]

We lived off campus in an apartment. I was a senior and most of my classes were at the graduate level. Plus I was working in the department and spent most of my time hanging around with grad students.

Scary (was Re:Movie of it moving...)

[Anonymous Coward]

Erm... does anyone else think this thing is really scary looking?

Let's hunt them down and kill them...

In other gastropod news...

[Otter]

A recent National Geographic article had the most amazing discovery I've seen in a long time: an Australian octopus that mimics dangerous marine animals by changing color and pattern and folding its arms.

It can bunch its arms into a flattened oval and develop brown patches to resemble a toxic flatfish, curl and hang its arms and turn light blue to resemble a local jellyfish, elongate and develop stripes to look like a sea snake. Absolutely mindblowing.

Unfortunately the pictures they selected to put on the web don't begin to do it justice.

Re:In other gastropod news...

[Anonymous Coward]

I learned about this guy in Japan last year.
It's called a monomanadako or mimicing
octopus. It's _way_ cool to see it on TV.
They did a documentary on it and found that
even young ones develop these mimicing skills.

One changed from his mimic of a mooray eel only
to be gulped up by a big fish who saw him do so.
Fortunately, the fish spit him out.

First Contact

[cybrpnk]

This isn't a squid...it's an alien astronaut from the oceans of Europa...

Taking bets

[Hoi Polloi]

How long will it be before it gets exploited for food, or whatever, to the brink of extinction? I'm sure they'll end up in some Japanese supermarket. Can't have a form of life just doing it's thing on this world now can we?

Leviathan from The Illuminatus!

[scorcherer]

OK, the head is not exactly pyramidal, but the number 23 does appear there (length of tentacles).

Nice quotes there, Mr "Scientist"

[Unknown Bovine Group]

Did anyone else note the innane quotes from Michael Vecchione?

``These are real mystery,'' said Michael Vecchione of the National Marine Fisheries Service and the National Museum of Natural History in Washington. He describes the squid in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

``They behave strangely but they also look really weird,'' he said in an interview.

and

``I think those long extensions are really sticky,'' Vecchione guessed.

<mockery>
Vecchione was also heard to say, "I think those really really sticky extenstions could hold the Incredible Hulk" and "my really weird squid could beat up your stupid old giant squid."
When asked why he thought the extensions were "really sticky" and not "somewhat sticky" he replied, "well, I don't know, but wouldn't it be really cool if they were?"
</mockery>

Re:Nice quotes there, Mr "Scientist"

[Jupiter9]

Did anyone else note the innane quotes from Michael Vecchione?

No, not really.

Re:Nice quotes there, Mr "Scientist"

[Anonymous Coward]

Really?

It's a new Chinease stealth submarine...

[sergeaux]

Designed in response to recent declassification of a Russian "stealth" warship and as a countermeausure to the National Missile Defense.

Dinner?

[ndogg]

Hmm, yum, looks tasty...

Fuck you Moderator

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a joke, laugh. Get off your 500 lb ass and do something besides modding down people for making a joke.

Lots of neat stuff in the shallows, too.

[ackthpt]

Go out into the Monterey Bay in a small boat on a calm morning and you'll see lots of interesting invertebrates near the surface. Crystal Jellies and the like.

My favorite is this one.

Some 1600x1200 jpegs from the Monterey Aquarium, in Monterey, California. Enjoy!

Crystal Jelly

Giant Sea Slug with Giant Sea Cucumber back among the anemones

Anemone and Clownfish

Creature from Abyss!

[iontyre]

Yes, doesn't it look like the alien swimming creature that rescued Ed Harris? Wonder if it glows at all?

Re:Creature from Abyss!

[hether]

Nope, it doesn't glow. They reported on the news that it doesn't make its own light in any way. :)

Compare to Taningia danae

[n-baxley]

It looks much more like the Taningia danae than the giant squid that most of us are more familiar with. While Taningia danae has lighted tentacles, the key things to notice would be the prominance of the fins, and the consistency of length of the "arms".

You can see more comparisons at NASA of all places.

Eyes?

[geekster]

"It just hung there, looking at us, as if suddenly seeing ALVIN float up like a whale with lights was no big deal."
Perhaps because it has no eyes?

MBARI site

[DarkLurker]

Here's a link to the story on the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Instute
(MBARI) site

straight from the source...

Squid size

[cnkeller]

I had a book back in my younger days (70's,early 80s') called Dangerous Sea Creatures. I believe it was published by Time/Life. What was interesting was the way that they could estimate a squid's size based on it's suckers. Suckers of a given diameter belong to a squid of a certain size. Makes sense, fairly believable. Anyway, they reported that sperm whales had been caught (back in the days of unrestricted whaling) wich sucker marks 18" across. I guess it's pretty obvious what a sucker mark looks like and it's reasonable to assume they game from a giant squid. That brings the length of the attacking squid right around the 175 feet or so of the one reported in the Indian Ocean in the late 60's. I wish I still had this book so I could give out the ISBN etc and make sure I had the story verbatim.

Re:Squid size

[mystrale]

Huge sucker marks may imply correspondingly huge squid--but not necessarily. A juvenile whale could tangle with a giant squid, picking up scars, say, 15 cm across. As the whale grew, its sucker marks could grow to 40 or 50 cm, exaggerating the size of the squid that made them. Has anyone found fresh sucker marks 45 cm across?

Our planet is neat.

[Klowner]

It just seems strange that us human's have cloned sheep, yet don't even know what's out there yet.
Heck, I'm more interested in octopus/jellyfish/ray animals than duplicated sheep.

I'm still waiting for them to find a nessie :)

japanese article translated (badly automatically)

[mattdm]

automatic translation isn't very good at japanese to english:

I compromise on the way and turn and, seems to be "a bone of a folding umbrella" at all and can see an arm of this cuttlefish, and a unique figure seems to be the result that adapted itself to the deep sea, but it is watched even if the, detailed habits don't share it, and there is much water, and a cuttlefish to finish compares, to to the deep sea because, meat is too soft and eats it that I am not delicious.

Re:Not a squid/Convergent evolution

[texchanchan]

"Convergent evolution": Widely evolutionarily separated creatures develop the same appearance and methods of feeding and reproduction. One spectacular example is the naked mole rat (see them yourself) which is a small mammal that lives like an ant or termite, including having a queen, workers, etc. Live like a jellyfish, look like a jellyfish. But you won't revert to jellyfish structure, any more than mole rats become cold-blooded or exoskeletal just because they act like termites.

Gotta love that headline

[ROU Nuisance Value]

Large Squid Baffles and *Amuses* Scientists

"...so the lady squid says to her husband, 'Not tonight, dear, I have a haddock'..."

"Come on, people, I know you're out there, I can hear you swimming...."

One Question ....

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it edible?

How big is it really?

[SilentTristero]

Some articles say 20 feet long, Monterey Bay site (mbari.com) says 4 to 5 meters, but nobody says whether this includes the tentacles or not, which makes a big difference.

What's this thing's wingspan?

Well

[autopr0n]

Actualy the ablity to spell has little to do with that. According to the standardized tests I've taken, I'm in the top 7% of collage students.

That's totaly irrelevent, however. As we are not talking about my ablity to classify squids, but rather the researchers in comparison to some slashdotter who read a Yahoo! news story about it. If you had any kind of intelegence, you would realize this. My intelegence has nothing to do with their ablity to classify squid.

A good guide to squid of all types

[Motheius]

http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/squ id_opening.html

Um... This isn't new... I fought it in FF7!

[Mustang Matt]

I'm pretty sure I fought and beat this creature in final fantasy 7.

Does anyone know the name of it? It wasn't even underwater!

Or was it FF8? I can't keep them apart anymore...

3 words

[Anonymous Coward]

17 feet long.

And it's normal for deep sea variations to loose their sight and pigmentation, just like in caves.

Spelling Error in PDF

[hengist]

I think the expeditions were looking in the Kaikoura canyon, not the Krikoura canyon.

Kaikoura (it's a smallish town) has a thriving whale-watch industry, btw.

dont you just love..

[attackiko]

``I think those long extensions are really sticky,'' Vecchione guessed

.. those fine scientists!

opensource squid ...

[freaker_TuC]

Guess it had to happen, opensource squid getting free in the big ocean!

Guess it has to be their new release ...

Your joke wasn't funny, shit-4-brains.

[Anonymous Coward]

So go eat a tampon.

Ancient cyclopean city discovered

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, yes: an ancient undersea city was discovered recently, in the Caribbean. (More analysis here.)

Coincidence? Or are the Old Ones returning?

grah the article's contents are written for idiots

[msew]

nothing like an article being dumbed down to 4th grade level.

Anyone and their mom knows all about Clione.

[Anonymous Coward]

Take a look at the Pteropod Sea Angel (Clione) [jellieszone.com] and tell me its a snail. When you can do that successfully come back and comment on this animal. (Note to others: Clione is VERY VERY cool, take a look at the pics if this /. story interested you)

No, dumbass, Clione is not a snail; it is a slug that flies in the water and actually eats jellyfish itself. I just typed the text below for you so read it before you expose your low icq:

Few gelatinous animals would be regarded as "cute", but perhaps this shell-less pteropod comes close. Clione is quite agile, using a pair of wide, muscular wings that are narrowly attached in the anterior half of the body. The posterior half is relatively transparent; the orange-pigmented viscera are confined in the anterior. The "head" is marked by a pair of distinctive antennae. Three pairs of feeding structures known as buccal cones, which are normally retracted, are visible inside the head. Clione feeds almost exclusively on the small thecosome pteropod, Limacina. Aggregations of Limacina usually include a few Clione actively in search of a meal. When Clione are feeding in dense prey aggregations, the gut of most individuals has a dark appearance. If you observe a sea angel in the midst of its prey, you may see a few swimming with their buccal cones extended. Three pairs are used for grasping Limacina, after which chitinous hooks and the radula extract the prey for ingestion. Mating individuals unite ventrally for reciprocal fertilization (second photo). The result is the release of a spherical gelatinous mass containing the eggs. Clione inhabits temperate and cold waters of all oceans. It is not commonly seen in surface waters of Monterey Bay, but when Limacina are present, may be very abundant. West Coast individuals typically are no more than 3 cm in length; individuals in northern populations may reach up to 8 cm.