POST YOUR COLOSSAL SQUID QUESTIONS HERE

[OB]

Mark is having problems because Olaf stretched the waders!

I heard that

 

[OB]

Such a shame, en route aboard an ageing Ilyushin, when this all happened I've checked the blog though, seems to have come off rather nicely!

 

[myopsida]

Such a shame, en route aboard an ageing Ilyushin, when this all happened I've checked the blog though, seems to have come off rather nicely!

It all went rather smoothly. .. .. . .

 

[sorseress]

Hey folks, there are some new pics of Messie on the Te Papa blog. Great closeups and shots of the eyes.

 

[sorseress]

I just showed the pics to my husband, who promptly identified cthulhu! or ? That is the question!

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Get two pounds of butter and try and stitch them together so that when you pull one block away the other follows suit (and the stitches don't tear it).

Honestly, it was almost impossible (we could have done some lovely cosmetic superficial stuff, but that wouldn't hold anything together). (And it wasn't easy balanced somewhat precariously over a very large tank, with a squid a half-metre below the lip, with lovely residual formalin.)

I see a TONMOCON III challenge/competition here (stitching butter); just to make it a little more challenging we should be blindfolded (and we can still race little cuttlefish cars around the carpark).

 

[esquid]

Would this be salted or unsalted butter?

 

[Chlosapel]

As Jean said, it's actually the giant squid we believe to be more the sit-and-wait type (very small fins, relatively weak mantle musculature, body not strongly attached to mantle - all things that would be problematic for prolonged, fast swimming), while the colossal appears to be a very active swimmer (extremely large fins, very thick, muscular mantle, head fused to the mantle as in all cranchiids).

The giant and colossal squids are in different families (Architeuthidae and Cranchiidae respectively); each family is a group of genera that have certain morphological traits in common, so some of the differences are 'because' they're in different families (or, you could say they're in different families because of some of the differences), e.g. the means by which the head is attached to the mantle. Within the families there can also be a wide range of morphologies - different relative fin-size or arm-length for example. Have a look at some of the cranchiids at the link above - even the eyes vary a lot (and some are very strange.) The cranchiids are morphologically quite diverse, so Mesonychoteuthis has some big (ha ha) differences even from other genera in the same family. With Architeuthis, it's hard to say what variations there could be within the family, because at present (according to genetics at least), there is only one genus and species worldwide, Architeuthis dux.

Hope this helps.

Would it be logical to assume it would hunt like other cranchiids? What behaviors do the cranchiids share?

 

[OB]

You might wish to be a bit more precise, are you inquiring after specific methods of predation? We learn very little from specimens in jars. Forward facing vision and a rather large funnel favour an assumed cockatoo position or J pose, but no one has witnessed M. hamiltoni in its natural habitat, actively hunting. We can assume that the females appear fond of hooked toothfish towards reaching maturity, but that is fundamentally anecdotal based on the specimens captured thus far.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Ahhhhh, but we can hypothesise quite a lot, my good man (from a dead specimen). I've had many an interesting discussion with a dead squid in a jar.

The arm formula is also rather handy; there are cranchiids that suspend themself in the water column with their arms oriented down, and there are those that do so with their arms oriented up. Arm formula (I>II=III>IV) [dorsal, dorso-lateral, ventro-lateral and ventral] is most likely associated with 'arms up', but IV>II=III>I is likely associated with arms down. Both orientations are not uncommon amongst cranchiids. Then you've got the relative position of the hooks in the central portions of the arms, in Mesonychoteuthis at least (not other cranchiids), and in order for these to be positioned at comparable levels when the arms were held together would require the arms to be in the upright position.

I've been looking at a number of juveniles these past few days (Mesonychoteuthis), and all also have the eyes clearly oriented forwards. Unfortunately the position of the arms in these preserved specimen is neither up nor down, but straight ahead; this is, without any doubt, a post-mortem artefact associatd with the curator fixing them in a relaxed state, orienting the arms along the antero-posterior axis (because this is what they would have expected).

We're fortunate in that Mesonychoteuthis has secondary modification of the arms (hooks), because without this it would have been less apparent how the animal oriented itself in the water column. With it I am quite comfortable saying that the arms would normally be in the 'up' position, like you said.

 

[OB]

Oh, indeed dead squid do tell tales... The point is that we know so little that we HAVE to make do with conjecture mainly

 

[myopsida]

Ahhhhh, but we can hypothesise quite a lot, my good man (from a dead specimen). I've had many an interesting discussion with a dead squid in a jar.

With it I am quite comfortable saying that the arms would normally be in the 'up' position, like you said.

It would make more sense that the arms are held angled downwards as the squid swims slowly along a few feet above the bottom so that the tentacles are aimed ready to seize a benthic dwelling toothfish.

That said, maybe the juveniles/subadults differ and hold the arms up - juvenile toothfish (up to ~60 cm) are pelagic, so the squid could attack from below. This would result in a difference in prey selection with mature adults switching to larger benthic prey and thus avoid competition.

Or maybe all this up/down thinking is an artefact of bipedal simian primate logic and Mesonychoteuthis utilises its environment in 3-D.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

.... or maybe the squid swims upside down, has the arms oriented down, which is actually up. The more I think about this the more inclined I am to propose yet another alternative - that Mesonychoteuthis is infaunal, building caves in the sea bed, ambushing hapless fish that swim into them seeking refuge. By using its enormous bulk, supremo cranium and gigonotic eXRay capability - a teuthoid version of XRay - it couples laser-death rays and gelato-blottomous pulsoid transmissions through the two cerebro-cranial opticus maxima, blinding, dazzling, confusing and debilitating predator and prey species.

 

[myopsida]

.... or maybe the squid swims upside down, has the arms oriented down, which is actually up. The more I think about this the more inclined I am to propose yet another alternative - that Mesonychoteuthis is infaunal, building caves in the sea bed, ambushing hapless fish that swim into them seeking refuge. By using its enormous bulk, supremo cranium and gigonotic eXRay capability - a teuthoid version of XRay - it couples laser-death rays and gelato-blottomous pulsoid transmissions through the two cerebro-cranial opticus maxima, blinding, dazzling, confusing and debilitating predator and prey species.

I take it that it was a good Pinot noir?

this clearly indicates common ancestry with that coastal starfish (the name of which eludes me at present) which traps triplefins & shrimps underneath itself by tempting them to swim into what appears to be a nice safe cavern

 

[Jean]

.... gelato-blottomous pulsoid transmissions through the two cerebro-cranial opticus maxima, blinding, dazzling, confusing and debilitating predator and prey species.

Which of course explains the glop under the skin