Here's a news story from IOL re: the giant squid with sperm found embedded in its skin. Props are given to O'Shea at the end there...

Giant squid leaves sexcapades to chance (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=143&art_id=qw108368712230B265&set_id=1)

:oshea:

Here's another article along similar lines from Geo magazine in Germany... auf Deutsch, natürlich. :wink:

Ungeheuer auf Reisen (http://www.geo.de/GEO/medizin_psychologie/psychologie/2004_04_GEO_skop_riesenkalmar/?linkref=geode_teaser_toc_text&SDSID=)

[shrinking away and distancing himself from all things regarding this particular Architeuthis]

Hmm... that makes Architeuthis mating sound seriously haphazard... wouldn't there be some pheromones or something involved?

Well, if it's big and it doesn't eat you first then it's a prime candidate for an attempted mating. But I do distance myself from this pack mentality statement ..... Then again, we all know how the press blow things out of proportion, and a statement made in jest could well be misinterpreted in order to sensationalise a news piece.

... all the same, I'm distancing myself from this one; it was quite a headache getting the specimen over; the last one I am ever doing.

It just sounds weird, that's all. I mean, watching competition between mates in Loligo, I can kinda see how such a transfer of sperm could take place, but it still seems weird. I don't suppose there's any evidence of how archis mate, is there?

Well, if it's big and it doesn't eat you first then it's a prime candidate for an attempted mating.

One more reason to bite first and ask questions later.....

that explains the "Sperm" in the sperm whale. transferred during attempted interspecies mating... big... is that a love bite? :whalevsa: :shock: :P

Quoth the Raven: "Well, if it's big and it doesn't eat you first then it's a prime candidate for an attempted mating."

Actually, that was Steve O' Shea... The raven just sits upon the bust of Bender the Robot above my chamber door, and says "Well, let's get lootin'!"

Okay,

Well, I'm pretty far from being a marine biologist, but here's my :twocents: :

I'm sorry, but I don't see it. First off, Archis have eyes. What's the big deal? Well, let's consider this (http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=2333) thread. Squid have eyes. Giant squid have giant eyes. Now, if the zone where they lived was completely aphotic (without light), then those eyes would not be needed. Being very large, very sensitive, very functional light gathering organs they are obviously being used. It should make some sense that they can see something down there, even if we cant

Second, Steve O has made numerous references to squid having some type of pheromones, this being the basis for his squid-hunts. This being the case, Archis can "taste" the water for possible food and a mate.

Third, reproduction is a most metabolically costly process. It costs most cephs their lives. If this mating was such a haphazard process with Archis attempting to mate with anything down there they would lose their lives and the species would have simply died out from being really, really stupid. Imagine one trying to mate with a sperm whale! :whalevsa:

I guess that I just have a feeling that its not as simple as we are led to believe, that's all. For crying out loud, if one of its relatives, a freshwater mussel, can reproduce purposefully (and quite amazingly... read here (http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/conmag/1996/feb/fe96barn.html) for the sordid details - one hint, they involve LURES!), then so can a squid, no?

Sake and Mussels, (hold the glochidia)

John