octobot;123380 said:
[SIZE=-2]Discover Magazine[/SIZE]
Bloated Giant Squid Was No Vicious Killer
[SIZE=-1]Discover Magazine, NY - 12 hours ago[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]A person’s first thought of a giant squid might be the bloodthirsty behemoth that attacks seafarers in 20000 Leagues Under the Sea. ...[/SIZE]
More...
BAD BAD BAD REPORTING!!!
Not actively swimming might also mean deadly ambush predator, not blobby scavenger by definition. Toothfish on longlines may be immobile, but not dead per se.
Secondly, the mantle may be (partly) gelatinous (there were still distinct zones of muscle dorsally in the second large specimen we examined in May, Steve may tell us how the Big One fared in this respect; as we weren't able to turn it over then, I got just see the ventral side), the main propulsion comes from the fin, almost resembling a very muscular stingray when viewed up close and personal and basically as *wide as the bulky mantle itself. I am in agreement that
M. hamiltoni as an adult female does not
appear to be built for great speeds, but her 2 to 4 cm thick gelatinous dermis and slight denticulation of the epidermis certainly indicate adaptations to counter drag, only significant at higher speeds, and bulk is not against the grain of streamlining
per se; think bluefin tuna, not exactly a straggler (albeit of 70% muscle).
As far as I'm concerned I'm not
wholly convinced of the argument, here....
* In nature, redundancy has little place. Muscle tissue has the highest baseline metabolic rate of all squid tissues, bar the CNS. As the latter is miniscule compared to the fin's consumption, it stands to reason that any changes to allow for muscular atrophy towards the end of the life cycle (such as suggested for
M. hamiltoni's tentacles) will be favoured and preserved in ensuing generations. The fin, however, does not appear to diminish in size in this species with age. I would like to bring back from memory the still famous picture taken during the initial capture of the
living specimen, where the impression of "being quite capable of swimming" IMHO is very convincing, if analogy with other species holds, the fin allows manoeuvring forwards
and backwards to the extent of making mantle muscle atrophy a preferred strategy, rather?
I know, it's all circumstantial, but we can at least fuel debate, funny how this dead squid in an extraordinary jar speaks to us in tongues