The giant squid, the world’s heaviest invertebrate, was captured in a video of itself swimming in the deep sea for the first time since it was identified a century ago.
The video was recorded on March 9th The Schmidt Ocean Institute said in a news release by an international team of scientists and crew on an expedition near the Southern Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic.
Scientifically named Mesonychoteuthis Hamiltoni, the squid was a long-time boy nearly a foot long, the release said. It was 1,968 feet deep when scientists and crew members of the Institute’s Forcole research vessel filmed the video on a remotely operated vehicle called Subastein.
Alex Ingle/Schmidt Ocean Institute
“It’s exciting to see first in situ”We’ve been working hard to get the better of our customers,” said Kat Bolstad of Auckland Institute of Technology.
Bolstad was one of the scientific experts who helped verify the video.
“For 100 years, we mostly encountered them as harvested teeth predators, as prey remains mainly in the stomachs of whales and seabirds,” she said.
The squid was officially identified and named in 1925, but up until now, no one could have seen it lively on camera.
The squid is estimated to grow up to 23 feet long and weigh as much as 1,100 pounds, the institute said. Little is known about the life cycle, but as adults, they lose their transparent body.
A giant squid should not be confused with a giant squid. Natural History Museums in London. Both are giant cephalopods but belong to various families of squid. Giant squids have much longer tentacles, while giant squids have much larger bodies with shorter tentacles.
Bolstad and Aaron Evans, independent experts in the glass squid who helped validate the video, said the giant squid has distinctive properties, including a hook in the middle of its eight arms.
So far, ROV Subastein from the Institute has filmed the first confirmed video of at least four squid species in the wild, including last year’s Promachoteuthis and Ram’s Horn Squid in 2020.
Source: www.nbcnews.com
