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Giant Squid (Architeuthis)

It's Just doing the standard test,
Will it eat me,
Can I eat it
Can I mate with it
If non of the above forget it.
 
This left my gob smacked:

The paper "Unanswered Questions About the Giant Squid Architeuthis (Architeuthidae) Illustrate Our Incomplete Knowledge of Coleoid Cephalopods," by Clyde Roper and Elizabeth Shea (full paper not online), as quoted here by squid biologist Danna Staaf, says,

“If the estimated 360,000 sperm whales remaining in the world’s oceans eat one giant squid per month, then the giant squid population consumed must be over 4.3 million individuals per year. If the number is one per week, then the consumed population would be over 18.7 million individuals consumed per year. Estimates based on actual samples taken from sperm whale stomachs are much larger still. Clarke (1980) suggested that approximately 1% of the 700–800 squids a female sperm whale eats each day and the 300–400 squids a male eats each day are Architeuthis specimens. If true, that yields the astonishing number of over 3.6 million giant squids consumed per day, and a yearly total over 131 million giant squids.”

Staff figures in her blog Squid a Day that this equates to a giant squid being eaten every one-fortieth of second. Wow. Seriously, think about 131 million giant squid eaten per year. Playing with almost non-existent data here, with female squid topping out around 275 kg and males about 150, and assuming the sex ratio is 50-50 (which we don't know) and that all the squid eaten are adults averaging maybe 200kg, gives us 26.2 billion kilograms of giant squid being processed every year into whale poop. The actual number is a good bit lower, since only a minority of the squid involved are likely to be full-grown when eaten, but it's still stupendous. Indeed, given that sperm whales have been reduced by roughly (very roughly) two-thirds in the last two centuries by whaling, it's surprising the depths are not simply full of giant squid bumping into each other. Human activity, which has reduced the population of large fish up to 90% or more, might be part of the reason they are not. But wondering where all those missing squid are makes for a heck of a SyFy movie premise, doesn't it?
http://mattbille.blogspot.kr/2014/07/how-many-giant-squid-more-than-you.html?m=1
 
Divers Find Enormous, Creepy Squid on New Zealand Beach
Divers visiting New Zealand's south coast of Wellington were looking for a nice spot to go spearfishing Saturday morning (Aug. 25) when they spotted one of the ocean's most impressive creatures of the deep: a dead, but fully intact, giant squid.

"After we went for a dive we went back to [the squid] and got a tape measure out, and it measured 4.2 meters [13 feet] long," one of the divers, Daniel Aplin, told the New Zealand Herald.

A representative from the New Zealand Department of Conservation told the Herald that the divers most likely found a giant squid (Architeuthis dux) and not a colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni). ...

FULL STORY (With Photos): https://www.livescience.com/63444-mysterious-dead-giant-squid.html
 
Since this is the most 'intact' giant squid corpse I recall ever seeing, I think the article's photo is worth posting ...

aHR0cDovL3d3dy5saXZlc2NpZW5jZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzEwMS81MTQvb3JpZ2luYWwvaW1hZ2UwMDEuanBn.jpeg
 
Their movement is hypnotic

very beautiful.
 
The giant squid's genome has been sequenced for the first time. As might be expected, its genome is strange in some ways. Initial results suggest some of the more tantalizing issues (e.g., its size and brain complexity) will require further research.
The mysterious, legendary giant squid's genome is revealed

Summary:
Important clues about the anatomy and evolution of the mysterious giant squid (Architeuthis dux) are revealed through publication of its full genome sequence.

How did the monstrous giant squid -- reaching school-bus size, with eyes as big as dinner plates and tentacles that can snatch prey 10 yards away -- get so scarily big?

Today, important clues about the anatomy and evolution of the mysterious giant squid (Architeuthis dux) are revealed through publication of its full genome sequence by a University of Copenhagen-led team that includes scientist Caroline Albertin of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole.

Giant squid are rarely sighted and have never been caught and kept alive, meaning their biology (even how they reproduce) is still largely a mystery. The genome sequence can provide important insight.

"In terms of their genes, we found the giant squid look a lot like other animals. This means we can study these truly bizarre animals to learn more about ourselves," says Albertin, who in 2015 led the team that sequenced the first genome of a cephalopod (the group that includes squid, octopus, cuttlefish, and nautilus).

Led by Rute da Fonseca at University of Copenhagen, the team discovered that the giant squid genome is big: with an estimated 2.7 billion DNA base pairs, it's about 90 percent the size of the human genome.

Albertin analyzed several ancient, well-known gene families in the giant squid, drawing comparisons with the four other cephalopod species that have been sequenced and with the human genome.

She found that important developmental genes in almost all animals (Hox and Wnt) were present in single copies only in the giant squid genome. That means this gigantic, invertebrate creature -- long a source of sea-monster lore -- did NOT get so big through whole-genome duplication, a strategy that evolution took long ago to increase the size of vertebrates.

So, knowing how this squid species got so giant awaits further probing of its genome. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200116080420.htm
 
A 7 foot long shark shows pretty obvious signs of having tangled with a large squid - quite possibly Architeuthis.
Mysterious scars on Hawaiian shark could be sign of giant squid attack

Shark-SquidScars-200609.jpg

A rare, multispecies brawl unfolded recently in the deep ocean off the coast of Hawaii. In one corner, an oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus) — a 7-foot-long (2.1 meters) predator capable of diving up to 1,000 feet (300 m) below the surface in pursuit of prey. In the other corner… it's not clear. But whatever it was, it was huge, it had tentacles and it put up a hell of a fight.

Undersea photographer Deron Verbeck caught the aftermath of this mysterious scrap when he snapped a picture of the offending shark, scarred all along its flank with strange circular patterns and dots. According to a study published June 3 in the Journal of Fish Biology, there are only a handful of creatures in Hawaiian waters capable of creating scars like that, and they are all enormous cephalopods.

While it's impossible to be sure what exactly scarred the shark, the researchers argue that it could have been a "phantom of the deep" — another name for the elusive giant squid (Architeuthis dux). ...

... According to the researchers, the series of circular marks along the shark's back and side are shaped exactly like the suckers on a large squid's tentacles. From the size of the markings, the offending squid must have been at least the same size as the shark (at least 7 feet, or 2 meters, long) and was possibly even larger, the researchers wrote. ...

... When pressed for details on the encounter, the shark responded merely: "You should see the other guy."

SOURCE: https://www.livescience.com/shark-giant-squid-fight.html

Edit: Added image.
 
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Giant squid, still alive, washes ashore on South African beach:

Giant squid found stranded on Western Cape beach in rare sighting


A giant squid was found stranded, but still alive and spouting ink, on Britannia Bay Beach in St Helena Bay, Western Cape, on Sunday morning.

Richard Davies, who filmed his encounter with the giant beast, said they had tried to roll the squid back into the water but because of its weight, decided to leave the animal to "die in dignity".

It weighed between 200 and 300kg, according to his estimate.

"It was sad because I could see it was dying," Davies told News24. "It was still pumping out ink and I touched one of its tentacles which sucked onto my hand and I actually had to use some force to remove it."

After Googling the creature known as Architeuthis dux in Latin, Davies realised a giant squid washing up on a beach in South Africa was a rare occurrence and a "once-in-a-lifetime sighting".
news24.com/news24/video/southafrica/news/watch-giant-squid-found-stranded-on-western-cape-beach-in-rare-sighting-20200611
 
Un;ess the sea was miles out I'd have made a better attempt than they did.
 
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