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A TEAM OF scientists and researchers in New Zealand today dissected only the second intact specimen of a colossal squid hauled from the ocean.
The 350kg female was caught a couple of months ago in the Ross Sea off the coast of Antarctica by a team fishing for Patagonian toothfish.
Pulled from a depth somewhere between 1200m and 1800m, it weighed about 350kg and was 3.5m long from fin to tentacle.
The fisherman ceased operations immediately once they saw the beast, and slung a tarpaulin underneath it to preserve it as well as possible. It was donated to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and, until Monday, had been kept on ice.
Colossal squid are shorter than their legendary brethren, giant squid, but heavier. The largest known specimen of a colossal squid weighed about 500kg.
Scientists have known about their existence since 1925, but only from scraps found inside whales and sucker imprints on whale skin. It wasn’t until 2007 when the same vessel that hooked this specimen, the long-liner San Aspiring, caught the first live colossal squid, also in the Ross Sea.
Since 2008, 4.5 million have seen that first squid on display in the Natural History Display at the Te Papa museum.
The dissection on Tuesday was carried out by museum staff with the Auckland University of Technology helping out. It began at 9.30 a.m. AEST and was broadcast live on YouTube for the next three and a half hours.
Here are the photo highlights:
Dr. Kat Bolstad led the dissection, starting with an examination of the tentacles.
The eye generated a lot of excitement on Twitter. It was more than foot across, the largest in the animal kingdom.
The beak took some removal, but it was well worth it.
The team grouped around the squid to give an idea of why it’s called “colossal.” The water is brown with ink, ruptured liver juice, blood and ammonium chloride, which the squid holds in a sac for buoyancy.
One of the main differences between colossal squid and their relatives is the presence of hooks in their tentacles.
It’s an incredible creature. You can watch the entire show here.
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Oh look; there is the last fish big fish in the sea; kill it before it gets away.
That’s tonights nightmare sorted…
The receipt from the temple bar has me sorted
He just wants a hug….
All that kalamari gone to waste..
Release the Kraken!
The meat off that must be worth a few sQuid.
Thats nothing.
I saw one of them flaking the shite out of a couple of Chinese lads at table tennis the other night on tv.
Will be coming on tour to Ireland?
Dublin council says no!
“As such, deep water squid have the greatest known penis length relative to body size of all mobile animals, second in the entire animal kingdom only to certain sessile barnacles.”
Dirk Squiddler. ..
And tentacles to boot!
My long, slimy and apparantly sexy, deep water half brother upstaging Me again.pfff
Sponge Knob?
Quare spanks!
Wtf it has a beak
My little boy watches the octonouts on tv and there’s a colossal squid on it but I didn’t know they existed in real life. Amazing to think of creatures on the planet that we still know so little about. Just hope it’s the same when my boys older.
Fecking HOOKS! On it’s tentacles! Holy fricking Christ on a bike! (Shiver!!!)
Christ They might find that missin plane in wann dim
Bucking hell imagine that coming up behind ya
Nothing to worry about,it wouldn’t be able to find me in the cloud of shit….
That’s where you’re wrong – they have tails made out of magnets so, if you have metal on you, they can catch you, they have eyebrows on a Tuesday and, instead of a leg they have Patrick Duffy – oh yeah, and they have laser beam eyes …
Mike
Nor can anyone else as that cloud is around you constantly!
Ah it’s nice to know the spoofer richard (walter Mitty) rodgers the troll is out to comment on one of its kin being caught.
What’s up spoofer,no good kenny stories tonight.
Pure evil
Calamari all round!
Looks like the mother-in-law
Amazing. But i was expecting it to be much much bigger.
You’d wanna see the size of the one already on display in Te Papa, it’s fairly large and in charge
Uugh gawd the smell…
I read that deep sea trawling is wiping out the giant squids eggs.
slippery customer!
it’s got magnets on it’s tail, so if you’re made of metal, it can attach itself to you and instead of a head, it’s got four arses
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