Colossal Squid

I saw the summaries of this BBC story, about the eyes of Giant Squid, some time ago, looked at it closely for the first time today, no puns intended.

I had not realized before this that the Giant Squid is not the largest.

That privilege belongs to the Colossal Squid as far as we know.

This is best site I have found, http://squid.tepapa.govt.nz/ it was referenced at link below.

This site, http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2008/04/30/hooks-and-suckers/ shows good pictures of the hooks or claws from on the arms of the Colossal Squid.

I find cephalopods among the most interesting and intriguing of sea creatures, my favorites are the Cuttlefish.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep-sea_gigantism

Are Cephalopods the Craftiest Critter?

Video by Roger Hanlon, produced by Flora Lichtman from Sciencefriday

In my opinion, Cephalopods are certainly the coolest animals extant, extant is a concise way to say "currently living".   Cephalopods include Octopus,  Squid,  Cuttlefish, and Nautiloidea.  Cuttlefish are my favorite, they seem to me to be the most sophisticated of the Cephalopods.
 
The Cuttlefish ability to camouflage is so advanced they can virtually disappear.  The also can put on displays that shame electronic devices.



As this short clip from Nova demonstrates.

Though Nautiloidea, such as Nautilus and Allonautilus, are a passion of a Mentor of mine Peter D. Ward.  Article here coauthored by him about the Allonautilus.

In a future post, I will show some of the connections between the study of Stones (Lithic) and Cephalopods.