tonmo
Jun 24th, 2003, 03:02pm
Recent finds in the waters between New Zealand and Australia are getting ample press as of late, as evidenced in part by the following article from BBC.com:
Weird ocean life surprises (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3017078.stm)
Of particular interest is the "wonky-eyed jewel squid", or Histioteuthis. Thanks to TONMO.com member Fujisawas Sake (http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=104) for the heads-up on this one!
tonmo
Jun 30th, 2003, 10:22pm
More coverage from nzoom.com. While there are several mentions of squid, Histeoteuthis is curiously not spotlighted in this article:
Sea bed exploration yields freaky critters galore (http://technology.nzoom.com/technology_detail/0,1608,201320-113-380,00.html)
Jean
Jun 30th, 2003, 10:59pm
I think what's contributed to the lack of info is the sheer volume that was collected. I heard Andrew Stewart from Te Papa (National Museum NZ) on the radio yesterday and the numbers of unidentified possibly new species is mindblowing many of these are inverts too! They're going to be a very looooong time sorting through it all!
J
tonmo
Jun 30th, 2003, 11:19pm
Jean -- makes sense. That's great to hear!
tonmo
Jul 1st, 2003, 09:18am
Melissa pointed me to the following link as well:
Video Footage of finds (http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/video/39220000/rm/_39220918_fish23_hampele_vi.ram)
It's great to see these creatures on video. Quite a haul!
Phil
Jul 2nd, 2003, 06:26am
Here's an update from the BBC:
Delight in ugly creatures (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3034520.stm)
Steve O'Shea
Jul 8th, 2003, 05:02pm
We've just picked up the squids from this NORFANZ trip (to identify). There's at least one new record of a species for the New Zealand EEZ, several northern-most records of others, and one question mark squid (sneaking suspicion it has a name, but probably the second-known specimen from the South Pacific).
We'll post a few pics as and when we defrost them for examination.
Cheers
Us
Phil
Jul 8th, 2003, 08:55pm
There is a nice slideshow of some of these NORFANZ creatures here:
NORFANZ Creature Feature (http://www.oceans.gov.au/norfanz/CreatureFeature.htm)
There is an image of Opisthoteuthis the 'Dumbo Octopus' on the 'extra creatures' page. It seems that at least one specimen of Vampyroteuthis has been found as well.
Enjoy!