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New Deep Sea Squid

Posted by Hemos on from the where's-peter-benchely dept.

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."

1 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Not a squid by Nephrite · · Score: 3, Redundant
    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