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60' Squid Washes up on Tasmanian Beach
Astrobirdr writes "CNN has a
story about a giant squid that recently washed up on a Tasmanian beach. Some think it might be a
new species." 60 feet long is enough for a lot of calimari.
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That's one of the holy grails of oceanography, to catch a live Architeuthis seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
from the article:
The giant squid is a carnivorous mollusk with a beak-like mouth strong enough to cut through a steel cable and its eyes are the largest in the animal kingdom -- growing up to 45 centimeters (18 inches) wide.
I'm not a marine biologist, but what do you suppose giant squid need to bite through that is "as strong as a steel cable?" Unless they prey on submarines, I can't imagine any sea critter that has a shell that tough!
.....
From the Article, emphasis mine:
"It's definitely of the giant squid group, which is exciting enough," the museum's senior curator of Zoology, David Pemberton said in the ABC report.
Editors Note: David Pemberton is an associate professor at the Royal Academy of Really Obvious Facts. His new book Kitty Cats Go Meow is due out in the fall.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
Trust CNN to get the basic science wrong. If a whale has a sucker scar, it's from a desparate squid trying to escape, not from a brush with death. Look at the sizes of the things: how would a 250kg squid handle a 60 ton whale?
Jeez.
'j
To spur "enterprise Linux," Big Bang, the distributed two-phase commit.
< stuff deleted >
"It's definitely of the giant squid group, which is exciting enough," the museum's senior curator of Zoology, David Pemberton said in the ABC report.
There is a reason why this guy is the senior curator and not just some silly junior curator mopping up the lab after hours.
I thought CNN was bad but this article is pretty skimpy. By the way, at the end of the article the y seem to hint that giant squid feed on whales when it is the opposite. Whales feed on squid. The problem is that the squid fight back, but there is absolutely no evidence that the squid feed on whales.
What do you mean? The squid was probably just trying to cache some fish.
*runs*
It is incredible that in this day and age, with GPS in our cars and microwave ovens in our bedrooms, where children are more accustomed to AIM than to the telephone and "snail mail" is only used for paying those few bills that can't be paid online, in this brave new world we still know so little about what lurks beneath the indigo waves of the oceans that cover 80% of our planet.
We talk of finding life on other planets, which orbit around other stars. And we talk about environmental issues and geological events with such certainty, such God-given insight. Or is it indeed God-given? Have we not perhaps eaten instead of the Fruit of Knowledge? Did we doom ourselves long ago to the curse of insight? It is not for me to say, nor for any man. But we have no choice: we, as a species, are driven to seek information, knowledge, science.
And as we do so, we will continue to find wonders that make us catch or breaths. Even in this modern world, beasts crawl the frightening depths, luring the simple-minded translucent fish to their jaws. What else lies beneath those waves? What else hides in the dark rain forests of South America, or in the frozen tundra of Canada? It's an amazing world out there, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
It boggles my brains.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
Discovery channel has been running a special lately, The Hunt for the Giant Squid. Actually it's been in reruns since last year, hardly a new species.
After a series of underwater-nuclear tests, a 60's style Japanese man in a giant lizard costume invaded Japan killing hundreds of small model people and toppling many a cardboard buildings.
...And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." - Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984)
Let me guess: you work as either a narrator or a writer for nature documentaries.
Ah well. I'm glad you found such profound intellectual delight in the discovery of this squid....
GMD
watch this
Also note that the bbc says:
"Mr Pemberton said its high ammonia content would have made it unpleasant to eat, tasting a bit like floor cleaner."
Timothy, you can have my helping.
Karma: T-rexcellent.
s/squid/slashdotter/
...it got abused to death being forced to engage in Japanese Tentacle Sex
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
Observations of squid 10 times bigger have been cited:
Almost forgetting for the moment all thoughts of Moby Dick, we now gazed at the most wondrous phenomenon which the secret seas have hitherto revealed to mankind. A vast pulpy mass, furlongs [1/8 of a mile!] in length and breadth, lay floating on the water. Innumerable long arms radiated from its centre, curling and twisting like a nest of anacondas [strangling snakes], as if blindly to catch any hapless object within reach. No perceptible face or front did it have; but it undulated there on the billows, an unearthly, formless, chance-like apparition of life.
"With a low sucking sound it slowly disappeared again. Starbuck with a wild voice exclaimed, 'Almost rather had I seen Moby Dick and fought him, than to have seen thee, thou white ghost!'
"'What was it, Sir?' said Flask.
"'The great live squid, which -- they say -- few whaleships ever beheld and returned to their ports to tell of it.'"
DNA is the ultimate spaghetti code.
Yes, how ridiculous, because we never do anything to upset the natural balance of this world! What a fool PETA is.
Anyway, it's our right to do what we want.
The parent post is an attempt at humor, not off-topic rambling. If you've ever anything be H. P. Lovecraft, you got the joke and probably were expecting to see some reference when you read the article. Cthulhu was a squiddy "god" that lived (so to speak) in the depths in Lovecraft's maltheist pantheon. HTH. HAND.
"Bugger this, I want a better world." - Jenny Sparks
>>
> > Yes, and studying too little in English class is not enough for a lot of studying.
>
> Yes, and studying too little in English class is not enough for a lot of studing.
Fair enough, but how's studying in English class gonna help the guy improve his Itilian, which is the real problem here.
I read something that said the giant squid had ammonium chloride in its body, not the sodium chloride that is present in most animals. This was supposed to be an adaptation to the great depths where they live. I think it ruins any hope of making new gourmet dishes from giant squid.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
On other occasions, though, the squids have taken their time about withdrawing from the scene. There is no reason, after all, why they should show fear of visiting submersibles from the upper world, since such visits have been very few and far between indeed during the thousands or perhaps millions of years that these squids have occupied the lower depths. They have been known to hang around in the presence of the submersibles, gently waving their wing-like fins to hold their positions. One of them, in fact, prodded a submersible with its tentacle, getting its suckers stuck to it and experiencing some difficulty letting go.
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