Everything You Need to Know About Body Building

When you think "giant squids", you probably envisage huge, ship-capsizing krakens and baroque body of water monsters. Although this fantastical delineation of the giant squid is just that, a fantasy, behemothic squids are very real and are really very much a part of S Africa's marine heritage, and the excitement generated when the carcasses of these marvellous animals wash upward on the West Coast is proof of that.

Despite their enormous size and the fact that humans have known nearly giant squids for centuries, information technology wasn't until 2004 that the first 1 was photographed in its natural habitat. These animals truly are elusive!

Deep-sea giants

Giant squids (Architeuthis dux) are one of the largest invertebrates and are actually one of the largest animals on earth. Menses. With a maximum length of 13m for males and 10m for females, giant squids are longer than the Southern ocean's colossal squids (which do get a bit heavier - but we don't fatty shame here). There have fifty-fifty been claimed sightings of giant squids upwards to 20m in length, although none of these have been verified.

Despite their immense size, it is estimated that giant squids only live iv to six years.

The reason for their immense size is a phenomenon known as abyssal gigantism. This is the tendency for many deep-sea animals to be substantially larger than their shallow-water counterparts. Other examples of this include the Japanese spider crab, big red jellyfish and oarfish.

The chromatophores of the giant squid allow information technology to take on a red hue, excellent camouflage in nighttime, deep waters. © James Taylor

Although scientists don't concur on the crusade of this phenomenon, largely because the deep sea is too inaccessible to allow large calibration study, it is thought that the main crusade of gigantism is food scarcity. Larger animals tend to have more efficient metabolisms and are able to travel further on their reserves, and the depression temperatures and reduced predators of the deep sea negate the benefits of being pocket-sized.

The Two Oceans Aquarium's Japanese spider crabs are some other splendid case of abyssal gigantism.

Unfortunately, deep-sea animals practice not usually survive being brought rapidly to the surface, and so those grabbed past predators, like whales, or snagged by fishing trawlers make poor study specimens for marine biologists. Even though giant squids practise not have the gas-filled swim bladders of fish (more than on that subsequently) that are susceptible to traumatic injury when surfacing, the rapid changes in temperature and water chemistry of the upper ocean are not suitable for them. Mayhap most critically, dissolved gases in the blood and tissue of the squid will come out of solution and class bubbles during decompression - something scuba divers refer to as "the bends". This is the reason why virtually all behemothic squids seen by humans accept been badly injured or are dead - but that does not mean they aren't thriving in the deep ocean.

Where do they alive?

Giant squids are found in all the oceans, but seem to adopt temperate h2o temperatures and are more rare in polar and tropical oceans. The areas with the most behemothic squid specimens reported are Newfoundland, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, Namibia, Nippon, New Zealand and Australia. Although it seems that the open bounding main is the preferred habitat, connected seas, peculiarly the Tasman, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico also seem to be suitable habitats. Although the Mediterranean Sea has seen three of the approximately 677 known giant squid sightings, the consensus is that these squids were not native to the area.

Information technology's unclear where in the water column behemothic squids live, but those that have accidentally been defenseless by trawlers signal an estimated depth range of 300m to 1km.

Legend of the Kraken

It appears that cognition of behemothic squids has existed for a long time. Aristotle of ancient Greece described teuthus, a large squid five ell long (an ell or cubit is the length from your elbow to the tip of your fingers).

"Compared with one another, the teuthis, or calamary, is long-shaped, and the sepia flat-shaped; and of the calamaries the then-called teuthus is much bigger than the teuthis; for teuthi take been found equally much as five ells long. Some sepiae accomplish a length of two ells, and the feelers of the octopus are sometimes as long, or even longer. The species teuthus is not a numerous one; the teuthus differs from the teuthis in shape; that is, the sharp extremity of the teuthus is broader than that of the other, and, further, the encircling fin goes all circular the torso, whereas it is in part lacking in the teuthis; both animals are pelagic." – Aristotle, History of Animals circa. 322 BCE

The ancient Roman scholar Pliny the Elder described a squid over 9m long and weighing over 300kg. Pliny's polypus could also apparently climb trees, had jiff and then bad that it scared off dogs, and would fight trident-armed soldiers in club to steal casks of pickled fish. Sounds like a lot of piece of work!

"The head of this animate being was shewn to Lucullus; it was in size as large equally a cask of fifteen amphoræ, and had a beard, to use the expressions of Trebius himself, which could inappreciably be encircled with both arms, full of knots, like those upon a guild, and thirty feet in length; the suckers or calicules, as large as an urn, resembled a basin in shape, while the teeth again were of a corresponding largeness: its remains, which were advisedly preserved every bit a curiosity, weighed seven hundred pounds." – Pliny, Natural History 77 CE

Artist's impression of the giant squid that was washed ashore in Catalina, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, on 24 September 1877

In the Nordic cultures, the legendary kraken was clearly inspired thy the behemothic squid. Past the 1700s, stories of the kraken had reached other European scholars, poets and writers and even though these people had never seen a giant squid themselves, they were not shy about using it as a monster in stories to suit their needs. For example, krakens were supposedly Christian:

"Bartholinus, a learned Dane, told how on a sure occasion the Bishop of Midaros constitute the Kraken quietly reposing on the shore and mistaking the enormous creature for a huge rock erected an altar upon it and performed mass. The Kraken respectfully waited till the anniversary was ended and the reverend prelate safe on shore and then sank beneath the waves." – Henry Lee, Sea Monsters Unmasked 1883

Today, works such as Jules Verne's classic 20 000 Leagues Under the Sea, mod movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and Clash of Titans, novels like Artemis Fowl and the Greyjoys of A Song of Ice and Fire, and games such as World of Warcraft, take cemented the kraken equally a part of a global cultural meme.

Memes, myths and legends aside, information technology wasn't until 1874 that an actual photo of a giant squid was taken, albeit a dead one. A Newfoundland local, Reverend Moses Harvey spotted a giant squid that had accidentally been caught past a fisherman in what is at present Canada's Logy Bay. Rev. Harvey rushed the squid dwelling house and propped information technology upward in his living room (much to the horror of his family we're certain), and took the photo to a higher place. This photograph became the first incontestable proof that the kraken was more than a legend, and was used for the first scientifically accurate description of a giant squid shown below.

And, every bit they say, the rest is squistory.

Tentacles or arms?

Like octopuses, squids take 8 artillery - merely, they also have ii tentacles, bringing their total number of limbs to ten! What'south the difference between artillery and tentacles? In the case of cephalopods, the form of molluscs which includes octopuses, squids and nautiloids, arms are limbs that have suckers forth their entire length - the arms of an octopus being the classic example.

Tentacles practise non accept suckers forth their lengths, but can have large, sucker coverer "clubs" at the cease of each of their tentacles, as is the case for behemothic squids.

The suckers of giant squids are large - measuring 2 to 5cm across. Different octopuses, the suckers of giant squids are evolved to be used as weapons, and each suction cup is lined with rinds of serrated chitin teeth.

Rings of serrated chitin inside the giant squid'due south suckers provide its only defence confronting its greatest predator - sperm whales. © James Taylor

How practise they move?

Like other squids, behemothic squids swim using jet propulsion, past blasting h2o out of their mantles with the assistance of a siphon. They also take a pair of small fins that are used to steer.

Near ocean creatures rely on gas pockets to maintain neutral buoyancy - but this is a risky trait for deep-sea predators that risk bursting if they rising too chop-chop and depressurise. Instead, the giant squid circulates a loftier concentration of ammonium chloride solution throughout its body, which is less dumbo that the sodium chloride solution of seawater. This chemic tastes like salty, rotten liquorice and is the main reason nobody eats giant squids.

What do they swallow?

Behemothic squids eat deep-sea fish and other squid species, even preying on other giant squids when food becomes scarce. Recent prove also indicates that behemothic squids fight each other to steal food - sometimes to the death.

Giant squids utilize their artillery and tentacles to pass food upwards to their pecker - the blackness office in the centre of this image.

Giant squids use used the sucker-covered clubs on the ends of their 2 tentacles to catch prey. Once caught, the squid uses its radula, a molar-covered natural language inside its beak to shred its prey.

What eats them?

The perk of being large is that almost goose egg can defeat a giant squid. Sperm whales are the merely known regular predator of behemothic squids (and are actually neat at finding them too).

Many of the giant squids that launder up on beaches bare the scars of battle with toothed whales. Even though this squid managed to fight off a predator, the large bite taken out of its mantle ultimately killed it. © James Taylor

Juvenile giant squids are casualty to smaller whales, such as pilot whales, deep-sea sharks and other predatory fish. For once, humans are non a predator!

Giant squids use the razor-precipitous chitin rings on their arms and tentacles to fight off whales. If that means losing a limb, and so be information technology. © James Taylor

Giant squids do have a few tricks to endeavour to avoid predators. Like other cephalopods, they are able to excrete night ink to distract prey while they jet away.

The squid shown here is a Humbolt squid, but it exhibits many of the same defence features used by behemothic squids.

At over 27cm, giant squids have the largest eyeballs of whatever creature, possibly just exceeded past the colossal squid. In fact, only extinct ichthyosaurs had larger optics. These massive eyes assistance the squid see bioluminescent prey in the deep ocean, and may help information technology spot predators earlier information technology becomes prey.

Squid sexy times (and why it's a terrible idea to eat raw squid)

Based on our electric current agreement of giant squids, it appears that they reach reproductive age at about three years old. Females produced hundreds of thousands of eggs which are held together by a large mucus bundle. Although these bundles can be very large and are ofttimes confused for the eggs themselves, the eggs are just nearly a millimetre in size.

Male giant squids produce packages of sperm called spermatophores. The male uses its prehensile penis to inject these spermatophores into the arms of a female - although this procedure is just speculative. What is known is that squid spermatophores are motile and are able to burrow into soft tissue - as a few people who take eaten ungutted and uncooked squid take discovered the difficult mode.

Even though this giant squid is expressionless, its motile spermatophores are still able to eject themselves for a final-ditch endeavor to find a mate. © James Taylor

Due south African behemothic squids

It is not uncommon for giant squids to wash upwardly on South Africa'due south West Declension, or be caught in our Atlantic waters past trawlers. Between Southward Africa and Namibia, at least 60 giant squid specimens are known - virtually nine% of all known specimens, the 4th most prolific region in the earth.

Giant squids have besides been recorded from the stomachs of whales that take washed upward on the KwaZulu-Natal Coastline, and there have been unverified sightings of giant squid in the waters of Mossel Bay.

A giant squid that was found nearly-decease and collected past a local paddle-boarder near Melkbosstrand in 2017 went viral. © James Taylor

In Southward Africa, giant squid specimens are preserved in the natural science history collection of Iziko Museums, where 19 behemothic squids are currently stored.

The largest behemothic squid ever recorded in South Africa was 9.1m, and washed up at Kommetjie in 1992. By comparison, our local Greatcoat Promise squid (Loligo reynaudii), or calamari as you probably know them, grow to merely 30cm.

Other "giant" squids

Originally, eight species of giant squids were described, but a 2013 Deoxyribonucleic acid study revealed that all behemothic squid species were the same.

In addition to the giant squid, Southern Bounding main is dwelling to the Antarctic jumbo squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni), which is shorter than the giant squid but is estimated to have a larger weight - and thus a larger size. They are even rarer than giant squids, so data is scarce and information technology will likely be many years until the contend on while species is larger is settled.

There are too a number of "large" cephalopods with upper sizes that are larger than humans and are often thought to exist giant squids when they wash up. Examples include the Humbolt squid (Dosidicus gigas), which tin grow to i.5m, the Dana octopus squid (Taningia danae), which grows to 1.7m and over 150kg, and the Enteroctopus giant octopuses which can abound to over 3m long.

Members of the Enteroctopus, like this behemothic Pacific octopus at Seattle Aquarium are amongs the larges invertebrates. Credit: Laszlo Ilyes [CC Past 2.0]

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Source: https://www.aquarium.co.za/blog/entry/everything-you-need-to-know-about-giant-squids

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