Squid ID?

I'm soooooooo glad it's been ID'd and not as a Moroteuthis species!!! I was just waiting for smoeone to ID it as the incredibly rare Moroteuthis fuzzballii:lol:


I'm afraid I'm still slightly in the "why would anyone ask ME??" state :oops: I believe we grow out of it tho' don't we????????

J
 
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A recent image search turned up two more squid sans identification, which I've attached below. One of the squid was scooped up in a net by a fly-fisherman, from the water's surface near Inhaca Island, Mozambique.

The other one appears on a very strange web-page, devoted to speculations on how the alien creatures from James Cameron's "The Abyss" could have generated a controlled tsunami. The pictured squid was said to have been trawled from the Gulf of Mexico.

The Mozambique teuthid's eye, pictured in close-up, appears to have a large photophore on its surface; the other squid, rather poorly photographed, appears to have been fatally confused by its context.

To see the photos in their original contexts, click on the links below.

:?:

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http://www.africanfishing.com/indigo/
Vie et passion blog
 
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That first picture: no idea.

The second, perhaps it is a juvenile Thysanoteuthis (Diamond backed squid) or possibly a Sepioteuthis. I basing this on photos in Mark Norman's book.

Mind you, I was completely wrong last time and I'm probably completely wrong now!
 
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Phil, between the two of us, we might get somewhere. I had no guesses about the Mozambique squid, and one guess for the Gulf critter: Pholidoteuthius adami. Despite the not-so-great quality of the photo, you can make out lots of little bumps on the mantle; these dermal pads are consistent with Pholidoteuthis morphology, as are the large fins, round head and slight tentacular clubs. P. adami is also common in the Gulf of Mexico. (For more details, check out the link below.)

Any other USOs out there? Besides the ones Steve and Kat like to drop hints about? :roll:

Clem

Pholidoteuthis adami
 
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Clem, I think you might be bang on target with Pholidoteuthis. Having looked at photos of the diamond-back this afternoon, I don't think I've got the other squid right. The fins don't look pronounced enough though it is hard to tell in the photo.

Why do I even pretend I could hazard a guess? I have not got the faintest idea about either of them!
 
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Oi! Self-deprecation! Phil, your sepioid suggestion might not have been far off the mark. There are bathyteuthids known as "comb-fins," whose fins extend nearly the full length of the mantle, supported by very thin ribs. Hard to be sure, but in the first photo of the series, it looks like the Mozambique beastie might have such fins. The second photo in the series shows a hard line running around the mid-line of the mantle: perhaps the fin folded down against the body?

Clem
 
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....hmmmmmm

Well, again they've gone out of their way to take photographs that miss all of the systematic characters you need to make an informed identification.

The Gulf of Mexico beast - interesting. The scales are too small for it to be Lepidoteuthis, and it does look as if it had tentacles (the two narrow limbs, partially in shot); Lepidoteuthis by this stage (mantle length - even though no scale is provided it is obvious we are not looking at a paralarva) has only 8 arms (the tentacles would be several mm long, filamentous and not visible) ; so, Lepidoteuthis can be discounted.

We get Pholidoteuthis boschmai here in New Zealand waters; I've never seen an adult with tentacles (they are always lost/jettisoned/?autotomised at capture); but whatever it is it certainly is not this species. I've not ever seen P. adami (other than pics in books) - but if that is a colour photograph (I am having trouble - am quite colour blind; things look very brown/purply or black to me) then I doubt it is a Pholidoteuthis (the colour of which is very (indisputably) red for both P. adami and P. boschmai). The way the skin has abraded from the posterior portion of the mantle (the pointy end; where the skin goes from scaley and dark to smooth and white) is very Pholidoteuthis-like (I think there's something interesting in this area in live Pholidoteuthis that is lost during capture; either fantastically delicate skin, something glandular or something structural; I'd love to know what it was).

It could very easily be a species of Mastigoteuthis (including those referred to Echinoteuthis or Magnoteuthis); I've seen large things just like this before, this colour (if a colour pic) ... and in fact am describing one right now. I really need to see the 'tail' on the beast, a close-up pic of the sucker rings and a squiz at either the mantle- or funnel-locking cartilage to make an ident (in fact the locking cartilage would suffice to make an ident).

Re the other pic, I've seen one Thysanoteuthis rhombus only (bizarre, taken from 50°S - well outside of its recognised distribution). What struck me when I first looked at it was how similar it was to Sepioteuthis in overall facies. In fact Thysanoteuthis was first described as a Sepioteuthis, so we weren't the first to make that mistake. I'll either/or this myself right now (though the eye is a give away).

I think the other squid you refer to (the one with ribs down the fins) ... is that Chthenopteryx? Chthenopteryx is a very distinctive (and small) squid .... not a lot like this brute I'm afraid.

Disclaimer "everything written above could be total nonsense"
Cheers
O
 
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Steve O'Shea said:
...I really need to see the 'tail' on the beast, a close-up pic of the sucker rings and a squiz at either the mantle- or funnel-locking cartilage to make an ident (in fact the locking cartilage would suffice to make an ident).

What's a squiz?

:|

Clem
 
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Sorry Clem, that's 'Steve speak' for 'good look'.

Hiding away in an office or spending most of my time in solitude (at sea/home) I tend to invent my own language.
Cheers
O
 
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Hmmmmmmmmm.

Stab in the dark, but most likely a spent/mature female Moroteuthis, and based on the attenuated tail, one of either M. robsoni or M. robusta.

Hard to say though .... would like to check out the tentacular club armature (to look for hooks).

Where do you find all of these?
Cheers
O
 
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Steve,

I noticed that the first arms are noticeably smaller than the rest on this Moroteuthis. Is that common to all Moros?

As for where I find these pictures, I just run a Google image search, using the word "squid" with different modifiers. Lots of pictures of disappointed looking fishermen hoisting Dosidicus. There's a few images of your more hirsute self, as well.

Clem
 
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