Deep sea scientists have filmed a live colossal squid in its natural environment for the first time since the species was named 100 years ago.
In a surprising twist, the individual – caught on film at a depth of 600 metres by researchers onboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Falkor (too) – was a baby.
Reaching up to seven metres long and tipping the scales at 500kg, the colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) is the heaviest invertebrate on Earth. But this see-through juvenile measured just 30 centimetres long.
“It’s exciting to see the first in situ footage of a juvenile colossal and humbling to think that they have no idea that humans exist,” says Dr. Kat Bolstad of the Auckland University of Technology, one of the independent experts who verified the footage.
“For 100 years, we have mainly encountered them as prey remains in whale and seabird stomachs and as predators of harvested toothfish.”
The colossal squid: a living legend
Tales of incomprehensibly huge squid have long been a thing of legend. These gigantic animals may have inspired the legends of the Kraken in Scandinavia, the Scylla in Greece and the Lusca in the Caribbean. In his History of Animals, Aristotle describes a huge squid – the teuthus – that grows to “as much as five ells long” (an ell is “the length from your elbow to the tip of your fingers” according to Two Oceans Aquarium).
But these fantastical beings are as real as the narwhal. The colossal squid species was first named and described in 1925 but little has been discovered about these elusive creatures in the 100 years since.
These animals are believed to have the largest eyes on the planet. Their enormous eyeballs (the size of a football) help them spot sperm whales – their only predator – in the darkness of the deep ocean. They can be identified by the hooks that are found on the middle of their eight arms.
“The colossal squid is unique because it has incredible rotating hooks on the club-shaped ends of the tentacles,” says Te Papa Tongarewa (Museum of New Zealand), which has a colossal squid specimen on display in its collection. “The arms differ from the tentacles in having many more and much bigger suckers, and hooks that do not rotate.”
The little juvenile was filmed while scientists were on an expedition near the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It was almost entirely see-through but will lose its transparency as it grows older.
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Deep discoveries
During a previous expedition in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, they had filmed a glacial glass squid (Galiteuthis glacialis), another species that had never been seen alive before in its natural habitat.
"The first sighting of two different squids on back-to-back expeditions is remarkable and shows how little we have seen of the magnificent inhabitants of the Southern Ocean,” says Dr. Jyotika Virmani, executive director of Schmidt Ocean Institute, “Fortunately, we caught enough high-resolution imagery of these creatures to allow the global experts, who were not on the vessel, to identify both species.”
These two new sightings are a great example of how much scientists are still learning about deep sea ecosystems. “These unforgettable moments continue to remind us that the Ocean is brimming with mysteries yet to be solved,” says Virmani.
Image and video credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute
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