Giant squid

The giant squid (Architeuthis dux) is a genus of deep-ocean dwelling squid. Giant squid can grow to a tremendous size: recent estimates put the maximum size at 12 metres (39 ft) or 13 metres (43 ft) for females and 10 metres (33 ft) for males from caudal fin to the tip of the two long tentacles.

Giant squid
Giant squid, Architeuthis sp., modified from an illustration by A.E. Verrill, 1880
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Cephalopoda
Order:	Oegopsida
Family:	Architeuthidae Pfeffer, 1900
Genus:	Architeuthis Steenstrup in Harting, 1860
Species:	A. dux
Binomial name
Architeuthis dux Steenstrup, 1857
Worldwide giant squid distribution based on recovered specimens
Synonyms
Architeuthus Steenstrup, 1857 Dinoteuthis More, 1875 Dubioteuthis Joubin, 1900 Megaloteuthis Kent, 1874 Megateuthis Hilgendorf in Carus, 1880 Megateuthus Hilgendorf, 1880 Mouchezis Vélain, 1877 Plectoteuthis Owen, 1881 Steenstrupia Kirk, 1882

There is a larger squid, known as the Colossal Squid.

Until 2005, nobody had ever seen a giant squid that was alive. Only dead giant squids had been found. On 30 September 2004, researchers from Japan took the first images of a live giant squid in its natural habitat. Several of the 556 photographs were released a year later. The same team successfully filmed a live adult giant squid for the first time on December 4, 2006.

There is no agreement as to how many species there are. The Kraken is also believed to be a giant squid,

History

For many years, people would hear stories from fishermen about giant squids at sea. According to the stories, an enormous squid would wrap its arms around a whale, causing a terrible fight to start. Whalers said that sometimes, when they caught a whale, it would have scars as big as dinner plates on its body. Other times, when they cut open the stomach of some of their whales, they would find squid arms as long as 30 ft with suckers up to four inches wide. The whalers who told these stories either chopped up the squid parts to eat or use as bait, or they threw them back out to sea before scientists were ever able to examine them. However, in 1861, a French ship was able to bring back parts of a giant squid so scientists could study them.

Then, in the late 18th century, several giant squids washed up on shore, proving that giant squids really exist. After that, many giant squids were found washed ashore or dead at sea. Scientists grew very interested in these mysterious creatures, but few ever saw them alive. Scientists think they spend most of their time in deep, cold ocean.

The giant squid specimen preserved in a block of ice at the Melbourne Aquarium

In December 2005, the Melbourne Aquarium in Australia got the intact body of a giant squid, preserved in a giant block of ice. It had been caught by fishermen off the coast of New Zealand's South Island that year.

The number of known giant squid specimens was close to 600 in 2004, and new ones are reported each year.

Giant Squid Media

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  Tentacular club of Architeuthis

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  A giant squid specimen measuring over 4 m (13 ft) without its two long feeding tentacles

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  The dramatization of an underwater encounter between the sperm whale and giant squid, from a diorama in the Hall of Ocean Life at the American Museum of Natural History

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  Architeuthis sanctipauli was described in 1877 based on a specimen found washed ashore in Île Saint-Paul three years earlier.

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  Alecton attempts to capture a giant squid in 1861

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  Giant squid from Logy Bay, Newfoundland, in Reverend Moses Harvey's bathtub, November/December 1873

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  Specimen of giant squid nicknamed Wheke plastinated from 2005 and displayed on 26 March 2008 in the Grande galerie de l'Évolution of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.