Forum - Giant Squid 11 inch eye

Lond dispelling the myth of sea monsters I think this show there are giant creatures that could be called monsters.


Giant squid has world's largest eyes By RAY LILLEY, Associated Press Writer
Wed Apr 30, 6:07 PM ET



Marine scientists studying the carcass of a rare colossal squid said Wednesday they had measured its eye at about 11 inches across — bigger than a dinner plate — making it the largest animal eye on Earth.

One of the squid's two eyes, with a lens as big as an orange, was found intact as the scientists examined the creature while it was slowly defrosted at New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa. It has been preserved there since being caught in the Ross Sea off Antarctica's northern coast last year.

"This is the only intact eye (of a colossal squid) that's ever been found. It's spectacular," said Auckland University of Technology squid specialist Kat Bolstad, one of a team of international scientists brought in to examine the creature.

"It's the largest known eye in the animal kingdom," Bolstad told The Associated Press.

The squid is the biggest specimen ever caught of the rare and mysterious deep-water species Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, or colossal squid. When caught, it measured 26 feet long and weighed about 1,000 pounds, but scientists believe the species may grow as long as 46 feet.

"This is the largest eye ever recorded in history and studied," said Swedish Professor Eric Warrant of the University of Lund, who specializes in vision in invertebrates. "It has a huge lens the size of an orange and captures an awful lot of light in the dark depths in which it hunts."

The squids can descend to 6,500 feet and are known to be aggressive hunters.

Scientists using an endoscope to examine the stomach and other organs said later Wednesday on their blog that the squid was a female.

"We just found the ovaries — the specimen is a girl! The ovaries are full of several thousands of eggs!" the entry said.

Bolstad earlier said that females are believed to grow larger than the male.

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On the Net:

Squid Blog: http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/category/colossal-squid/

In fact 26 feet long squid is not a GIANT squid. Squids can grow up to 18 metres and even longer.

Oh yes, that one is not a marker to Peter Benchley's sea monster. Have you read his novel?

I know this isn't the largest squid but it is the largest squid they have had to study

A very good scale!

Smart Creature!

Kotikkk,
That's one amazing pictuer of a giant squid. I deffinately wouldn't want to meet one while I was SCUBA diving. I know that a lot of research on giant squids goes on in the Gulf of Cortez, between Baja and the Mexico main land. Do you know where this squid was caught? Thanks for the picture.

What a magnificent creature! I pity, it must feel pain...((
But the scale is not so perfect. As I understand it depicts different species of sea animals with their largest sizes not only notified but also presumed. Well? But 15 metres isn't even close to the limit for sperm whales. It is a presumed limit for sperm cow-whales but not males. Male sperm whales often grow over 20 meters, if live long enough.

As I know, this nice monster was captured nearby NZ. It's a Colossal one, not a Giant squid. The length was over 10 metres, the weight is over 400 kg. Large enough for a lonely scuba-diver! :)))

I watched a movie about those squids near Mexico coast. One of local Mexican squid fishers told about his mate who fell out of their boat, and other fishers hadn't time to rescue him. He was drowned and killed by several monster squids. The most iteresting is that those ones were small, if compared with those from New Zealand!

It's awful but no wonder, these creatures are also cannibals. An unluckily hooked squid has the only choice - to be eaten by people or by its own congeners.

And I saw a movie in which many squids were producing an amazing light illumination in their abyss, with red strobbing and other awesome effects! Could anybody tell me what invention of mankind was never realized in wild nature...

I think the human inventions that cannot be found in wild nature as same as they are realized by the mankind, just are not needed in nature.

Wow! What a great picture of a large squid and thanks for sharing the pic! ! It's a very beautiful creature!

i remember watching a documentary on the discovery chanel where they would make the sperm whale and the giant squid meet in a showdown. now they did not make the real creatures themselves fight each other, in the end they said that the spermwhale would win since it is faster than the squid, has a nasty bite and could detect the squid way in advance. the squid on the other hand has a mean beak and on its tentacles it has suction cups aswell as little hooks that rotate 360 degrees and those rip into the animal, the squid could also turn completely invisible but the sperm wahle could easily detect it with its sonar. lol that is what i remember from the show