Most big size giant squid, recorded by humans, was 17.4 m. But, despite this, scientists are inclined to think that this record is atypical for the main representatives of the genus of giant squid. The greatest the average size Among mollusks, it is recorded among colossal squids. The length of the mantle of colossal squids is 2 times greater than that of giant squids.
The history of the study of the giant squid began in 1856 when a Danish scientist Japetus Steenstrup compared the size of the beak of a mollusk washed up on the coast of Denmark with the proportions of ordinary squid and became convinced that it could only belong to a huge animal. Having analyzed the facts of finding huge parts of squid, as well as ancient legends encounters with sea monsters, the scientist suggested that the giant squid really exists and described it in his works, giving it a name Architeuthis dux, which means "super squid prince".
But a live giant squid has never fallen into the hands of people. There were no photographs, much less video recordings, and all information about the giants was known only from the remains. The first meeting with a giant mollusk recorded on film occurred in 2006, when a 7 m long architeuthis was caught. The expedition was led by a Japanese biologist Tsunami Kubodera. The specimen caught was a female, lured from the depths by a small squid used as bait. However, it was not possible to take the giant alive - he died from numerous injuries received while climbing onto the ship.
A little earlier, in 2004, the same scientist first photographed a living giant squid at depth. These photographs were the first photographs of living Architeuthis.
There is an opinion that the giant squid acts as an aggressor only in relation to its victims - various fish. However, humans have witnessed at least two instances of giant squid engaging in combat with sperm whales. In the first case, Soviet sailors saw a fight between a sperm whale and a squid, and there was no winner in the battle, because The sperm whale, having swallowed the body of the squid, suffocated in the arms of the tentacles of the half-dead Architeuthis.
The second case was recorded near the lighthouse in South Africa, when a giant squid fought with a baby sperm whale for an hour and a half, eventually defeating it.
For what reason squids engage in battle with sperm whales is not entirely clear. It is likely that sperm whales are, after all, the first to fight with mollusks, which constitute their main diet.
Video
Giant squid captured by deep-sea research vessel
Giant squid Architeuthis
Hollywood films have repeatedly frightened audiences with a giant squid - a huge creature living in the depths of the ocean. Surprisingly, such a creature really exists, like many other large representatives of this species. Below we will figure out which one is the most big squid in the world.
This genus of huge oceanic animals reaches a length of eighteen meters. Moreover, the length of the mantle is up to two meters, and the tentacles are up to five. It was found that specimens of this species can be found in temperate and subtropical zones all oceans. They can swim both very close to the surface and in the water column at a depth of about a kilometer. Due to its size, the only enemy that can harm the squid is the sperm whale. It is believed that there is constantly a life-and-death war going on between them, the outcome of which cannot be predicted. Although, probably, the sperm whale is still stronger. The largest representative 17 meters long was discovered in 1887 near New Zealand.
Even in ancient times, travelers visiting port taverns used to tell chilling stories about sea monsters that suddenly emerge from the depths and are capable of sinking entire ships, entangling them with their long, powerful tentacles. They were nicknamed krakens and over time, entire legends were created about them. True, most people were very skeptical about such stories. Of course, it was impossible to determine right away where the lie ends and the truth begins.
Aristotle claimed to have seen a huge squid with his own eyes
The famous ancient Greek poet Homer was one of the first to describe the monster in his works. Presumably, Scylla, whom Odysseus met during his journey, is the giant kraken. The Gorgon Medusa received tentacles from a strange creature, however, later they turned into snakes. And we also cannot fail to mention the monster named Hydro, defeated by Hercules. Entering Greek temples, you can see many frescoes depicting huge creatures that entangle ships with tentacles.
Only in 1673 did the myth gain real foundations. In the west of Ireland, the sea washed ashore a creature the size of a large horse, with many appendages and eyes resembling saucers. In addition, he had an impressive beak, shaped like an eagle's. The monster became an exhibit in Dublin, which curious people went to see for a long time. Carl Linnaeus, when compiling his famous classification of species, classified these creatures in the order of mollusks. After some time, scientists managed to properly systematize all the knowledge acquired about squids.
In 1802, a book dedicated to giant squids was published.
There was another incident in 1861. The steamship "Dlekton", sailing along Atlantic Ocean, met with a giant squid. The captain and his crew managed to stick several harpoons into its body, but to no avail: the mollusk disappeared to the bottom, and it’s good that it didn’t drag the ship with it. There were pieces of meat left on the harpoons, each weighing 20 kilograms. The drawing depicting the battle between a man and a squid is still kept in the Academy of Sciences in France.
What does this animal look like? The squid has an elongated cylindrical head and is several meters tall. His skin can change shade, from green to burgundy, depending on his mood. Krakens have the most big eyes among the entire animal world, reaching 25 centimeters in diameter. In the middle of the head there is a so-called beak, consisting of chitin, which helps the animal grind food. The squid's tongue is also very unusual: it is all covered with teeth various shapes, crushing food and pushing it down the throat.
The beak of a huge squid is very powerful and in some cases can bite through a steel cable
There are many stories about the monster and its photographs, including fake ones, roaming the Internet. Most often, stories involve squid attacks on people. For example, in 2011, the story of how a kraken attacked a 12-meter fishing boat and sank it in front of hundreds of eyewitnesses caused widespread resonance. This really happened. All but one fisherman died - and even that last one was brutally mutilated by the giant’s powerful suction cups.
In 2007, the world's largest squid was caught near Antarctica. last years. Of course, scientists really wanted to fully examine it, but at that time they did not have suitable equipment, so they decided to freeze the animal until better times. The giant's parameters are as follows: 9 meters in length, about half a ton in weight. The animal was dubbed mesonychoteuthys, the colossal squid, or the Antarctic giant squid. Its description was first given by the famous zoologist Robson. Since then, information about him has not been updated for a long time, so many have completely forgotten about him. However, in 1970, the larvae of the monster were discovered, and nine years later another adult specimen, reaching a length of a meter, was discovered.
In 2004, Japanese scientists for the first time managed to film Mesonychoteuthys on great depth
The colossal squid has a long body with an unusual torpedo shape. The length of the mantle can reach 3 meters, and together with the tentacles - 10. The largest representatives weigh about 500 kilograms. However, there is undocumented evidence of larger individuals.
The mantle itself is quite soft and wide, ending in a sharp tail with powerful fins. When spread out, they are shaped like a heart. In an animal amazing eyes, consisting of a pair of photophores, and truly huge - on average twenty centimeters in diameter. Squid tentacles have large round suckers arranged in two rows, as well as suckers and hooks. He also has so-called “catching hands”. They are massive at the base and thin at the ends. But the mollusk’s main weapon is its hard chitinous beak.
It is worth telling in more detail about the suckers on the tentacles. Their diameter ranges from 2-6 cm; around each sucker there is a chitinous ring with sharp teeth. With their help, the squid can easily grab and hold prey. This leaves circular scars on the victim's skin.
Scars from squid tentacles have been spotted on sperm whales more than once, this confirms the enmity of the species
This type squid live mainly in Antarctic waters, often in groups of several representatives. Closer to the north their numbers decrease. They usually hunt alone. Colossal squids have also been spotted off the coast of South Africa, South America and New Zealand. The depth of their residence is usually 2-4 kilometers; the huge squid almost does not rise to the surface, so it is very difficult to study the features of their natural behavior. The probable habitats of squids are determined by temperature; they prefer to swim at temperatures from -1 to 0 degrees.
Although very little is known to humans about the life of these creatures, some features were still found out. Their body contains great amount substances called ammonium chloride, which helps reduce them specific gravity. This is why squids have the greatest buoyancy among mollusks. This gives them the opportunity to silently approach a potential victim, then grab it with tentacles with hooks and tear it to pieces. The most common food for squids are anchovies and different types fish, however, among them it was also observed that they ate their own kind, in particular small and weak representatives of the species.
Almost without moving, they are able to effectively cut through the water column and develop a decent speed
Despite their size and physical strength, squids also have enemies. Of course, the main one is the sperm whale, this was found out from the remains of mollusks in their stomachs. Also, cubs that carelessly rise to the surface can become victims of albatross or Antarctic toothfish - predatory perch-like fish. In many cases, humans also pose a danger to giants: the most delicate squid meat is an ingredient in many dishes. True, taking into account the size of the giant squid, rings from it would be the size of car tires.
Stories and Legends of Giant Squids
Every discovery related to these creatures caused a huge stir, both in scientific world, and among ordinary people. A few years ago, a monster washed up on the shores of New Zealand; its tentacles were 5 meters long. Employees of a nearby museum managed to save the carcass from hungry vultures. Scientists examined the creature and determined that it was an adult female. Squids grow very quickly, but do not live long. It was not possible to understand why exactly the squid died, but it was clearly not hunger or an attack by a predator.
The legend of the Kraken was used by the creators of the film "Pirates" Caribbean Sea: Dead Man's Chest"
But for a long time, scientists had no reason to believe that giant squids actually exist. Due to their deep-sea lifestyle, this is not surprising. And in cases where animals washed ashore, they were already dead and partially decomposed. The creatures have such a terrifying appearance and size that they have always seemed to people like some kind of mystical monsters from other world. For example, in Jules Verne's famous novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a huge squid attacks a submarine. And the scientist R. Ellis in one of his works notes that the most frightening sight in the world, even more terrible than a shark, is the giant saucer-like eyes of a squid emerging from the depths of the sea.
For the most part, people are almost always scared by the unknown. Squids practically do not show aggression towards people, however, in legends about sea monsters they have always appeared as the most dangerous representatives animal world. In ancient Norse mythology, an evil Kraken arises, so gigantic that its body, partially protruding from the water, resembles several large islands. This misled the sailors; they rushed there to get clean water and food, but then powerful tentacles burst out of the water, instantly ending the lives of the unfortunates.
Museums store long-discovered and carefully collected specimens, but even they do not give all the answers, do not reveal all the secrets about giant squids
There are many ancient illustrations of how artists of yesteryear imagined this creature. In particular, there are many images of a mortal fight between a squid and a sperm whale, with the former being presented as the aggressor, which is completely incorrect.
Huge squids, undoubtedly, one of the wonders of nature, which never ceases to amaze people, creating creatures that are even difficult for the human mind to imagine. And those who happened to see these creatures in real life, they will definitely never forget this.
Since ancient times, there have been legends about giant squids, which the ancient Greeks called krakens or teuthys. According to Aristotle, these sea monsters engulfed the masts of galleys with their tentacles and sank them in the waters of the Mediterranean. It turns out that these mythical stories had a real basis, and today largest squid in the world- Architeuthis (Architeuthis Steenstrup), reaches a length of 17.4 meters, its tentacles grow up to 5 meters. At the same time, these are the average sizes of a sea monster. In the recent past, sailors found representatives of this species large sizes, and in prehistoric times The waters of the oceans were plied by squids, capable of fighting sea lizards - plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs.
Giant squids of our time
Modern ichthyologists know several species and subspecies of giant squid, which currently live mainly in the middle latitudes of the World Ocean. But no localization of their habitats in depth was noted. Echo sounders recorded the presence of huge cephalopods at a depth of about a kilometer, but, mostly, encounters with them were recorded at the surface of the water. It has been noted that deep-sea subspecies of these invertebrate animals can reach larger sizes than their relatives living near the surface of the water.
Today, scientists distinguish between the families of giant and colossal squid. If the former (genus Architeuthis) are represented by several species and subspecies, then the latter (genus Mesonychoteuthis) have only one species - Antarctic deep sea squid(Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni). But information about the size of the Antarctic cephalopod varies.
Despite the widespread distribution of giant squids, there is little oral or written evidence of these mollusks. for a long time they could not be photographed. For the first time, Architeuthis dux, the largest squid in the world, the photo of which is given below, was photographed on camera in 2004 by ichthyologists of the Japanese National Museum. The same researchers managed to make the first video of an Atlantic squid with gigantic size, in his natural environment a habitat.
The largest Atlantic squid (Architeuthis dux) ever caught by fishermen was 16.5 meters long. At the same time, the length of the tentacles was 11.5 meters, and the body, more “graceful” than that of the Antarctic cephalopod, weighed 275 kilograms.
The Antarctic squid, as an independent species of cephalopod, was first described by British ichthyologist Guy Robson in 1925. In 2007, New Zealand whalers caught an Antarctic squid in the Ross Sea, which was 10 meters long, with tentacles reaching seven meters in length. The weight of the animal was slightly less than half a ton. However, there is evidence that fishermen and Antarctic researchers have seen squid with a total length of 14 meters.
In nature, giant squids, except sperm whales, have no worthy rivals. The remains of adult individuals have been found in the stomachs of pilot whales, and sharks feed on juvenile squid. An albatross will happily eat a young squid that has surfaced. Despite the described aggressiveness of giant cephalopods, these animals feed mainly on plankton and young fish. Unlike ordinary squids and octopuses, giant invertebrate inhabitants ocean depths do not have a “jet engine”, but thanks to the zero buoyancy of their body, they float in the thickness sea water. This is precisely what explains the disproportionate length of the tentacles, which allows the giant squid to capture unwary prey that approaches it.
When considering the question of which oceanic squid is the largest in the world, one cannot fail to mention its closest relative - the giant octopus. In November 2016, the British daily tabloid "Daily Express" published information about the discovery by a Russian Antarctic expedition giant octopus, the dimensions of which exceeded 10 meters. According to one of the expedition members, Anton Padalka, who asked for political asylum in the UK, this monster is capable of paralyzing its potential victim with a stream of ejected poison at a distance of 150 meters. This is exactly how one of the drivers who took part in underwater research died. In addition, the animal is capable of jamming radio signals, and its female is capable of laying about 200 thousand embryos during the mating season. The observed specimen received the code name "Organism 46 - B", and today Russian scientists are considering the possibility of using it for military purposes. A. Padalka believes that the Russian military plans to populate all the lakes of North America with this monster.
In March 2011, a school of giant squid capsized a fishing boat in the Sea of Cortez and killed seven fishermen. Hundreds of people vacationing on a Mexican beach in the resort town of Loreto were eyewitnesses. Terrible tragedy played out before their eyes. The 12-meter ship was traveling parallel to the beach, heading to the port, when dozens of thick and slimy tentacles stretched out of the water towards the sides. They grabbed the fishermen and dragged them to the bottom, and then strongly rocked the ship itself and capsized it. “I saw four or five bodies washed ashore by the surf. Their bodies were almost completely covered with blue spots - from suckers sea monsters, Timmy Irwin, a surfer from San Francisco, told reporters. - One was still alive. But he hardly resembled a person. The squid literally chewed him up!” Marine biologist Dr. Luis Santiago from the Autonomous University of Baja California Sur, who participated in the investigation of the bloody incident, told local media: “Having gone immediately after the tragedy to the capsized longboat, we managed to capture one of the attacking shellfish using a clever trap. It turned out to be a female carnivorous Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas). Its weight was 45 kg, and its length without tentacles was 2 meters. (The tentacles themselves “stretched” 6 meters.) We believe that most of the pack consisted of females. We also believe that they deliberately attacked the fishermen and coordinated their actions. I’m afraid that in the coming years there will be more and more such attacks, since fish stocks in the “hunting grounds” of squid are catastrophically declining.” Locals, who call giant squids "diablos roios" - red devils - agree with Luis Santiago. According to them, shellfish have become more aggressive in recent years. By the way, a year earlier mass attacks giant carnivorous Humboldt squid on humans have been recorded on the California coast near the city of San Diego. Hundreds of sea monsters at least two meters long, with razor-sharp beaks with which they can easily tear a piece out of a person’s body, and jagged tentacles, attacked scuba divers and divers, whom the water then washed ashore already dead. Some surviving divers claimed that the squid's tentacles wrapped around their masks, cameras and equipment, and they barely managed to swim away from them. In particular, according to diver Shanda McGill, the rust-colored animal snatched her swimming apparatus and flashlight and grabbed her with its tentacles. “I was kicking like crazy,” Shanda Magill admitted. “The first thing you think is, God, I don’t know if I’ll survive.” This squid could easily hurt me if it wanted to.” Veteran Californian divers compared encountering giant squid to entering a cage with lions. Scientists estimate that at least a thousand individuals of squid were located near the California coast during the year at a depth of 120-300 meters, and divers noticed them when they had already risen to a depth of 25-40 meters.
FANTASTIC REALITY
These inhabitants depths of the sea They are so elusive and secretive that until recently people met with them quite rarely. In medieval legends they appear as monsters that attack sailors and sink ships. Sometimes they wash up on the shore, and even less often they end up in fishing nets. IN literary works Giant squids are immortalized under the name "krakens". The squid can reach the size of an average sperm whale and quite often enters into mortal combat with it, emerging victorious. Thus, in January 2011, an eleven-meter carcass of a sperm whale weighing about 15 tons was washed up by waves on the shore of Bering Island, located 200 km from Kamchatka. According to experts, the whale died from mortal wounds inflicted on it by an equally giant kraken. Most squids have luminescent organs. Light is produced as a result chemical reaction, similar to the one that creates the “cold” glow of fireflies. The squid's beak is very strong, and its eyes are similar to those of humans. It has ten tentacles: eight regular ones and two, which are much longer than the others, with something like suction cups at the ends. However, not only the sizes, but also enormous speed makes these cephalopods quite dangerous sea predators. Having drawn water into the body cavity, the squid forcefully throws out a stream through a funnel-shaped channel and rushes forward like a rocket. This “jet” engine allows the squid to reach speeds of up to 70 km per hour. In addition, he is capable of jumping out of the water to a height of up to 10 meters! Until the second half of the 19th century centuries, scientists generally doubted the existence of giant squids, and the stories of sailors about encounters with this mollusk were considered the fruit of their unbridled imagination. The turning point in scientific consciousness came on October 26, 1873. On this day, fishermen cast their nets in one of the bays of Newfoundland. Seeing some huge mass floating on the surface, they decided that perhaps it was the wreckage of a ship after a shipwreck. One of the fishermen, approaching an unknown object, hit it with a hook. Suddenly the “object” came to life, reared up, and people saw that they had stumbled upon a kraken
The monster's long tentacles wrapped around the boat. At the same time, the squid began to dive under water. One of the fishermen was not at a loss and cut off the monster’s tentacle with a knife. The Kraken released ink, coloring the water around it, and disappeared into the depths. The fishermen gave the tentacle to local naturalist Harvey. Thus, for the first time, a part of the body of the hitherto mythical kraken, the existence of which had been fruitlessly debated all this time, fell into the hands of scientists. A month later, in the same area, fishermen managed to catch another giant squid in a net. This copy was also given to Harvey. The length of the monster was 10 meters. The eyes of another squid, which was found dead in shallow water off the New Zealand island of Island Bay, had almost 30 centimeters in diameter. Having cut its belly, the fishermen discovered that the mollusk had three hearts: one large and two smaller ones. During the life of the squid, they drove blood into twelve-meter tentacles, with the help of which the sea monster grabbed prey and then tore it into pieces with its jaws.
IN THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE AREA
The existence of giant squids exceeding 20 meters in length has not yet been documented, but Canadian biologist and oceanographer Frederick Aldrich is convinced that great depths Krakens even 50 meters long can be hidden! The biologist proceeds from the fact that all the found dead specimens of the giant squid, 8-15 meters long, belong to young, weak individuals, with suckers of a small 5-cm diameter. Meanwhile, traces of suckers 20 cm in diameter were found on many harpooned whales. The English whaler and explorer Woollen once had a chance to observe a mortal fight in Indian Ocean between squid and sperm whale. “At first it was like an underwater volcano erupting. Looking through binoculars, says Woollen, I was convinced that neither the volcano nor the earthquake had anything to do with what was happening in the ocean. But the forces operating there were so enormous that I can be excused for the first assumption: very big sperm whale grappled in mortal combat with a giant squid almost as big as himself. It seemed as if the endless tentacles of the mollusk had entangled the entire body of the enemy in a continuous net. Even next to the ominously black head of a sperm whale, the squid's head seemed such a terrible object that one would not always dream of it. nightmare. Huge and bulging eyes against the deathly pale background of the squid’s body made it look like a monstrous ghost.” Some researchers attribute some of the mysterious disappearances of small ships to giant squids in Bermuda Triangle. At one time, within this anomalous zone, ichthyologists installed several powerful steel traps with bait at the bottom. Unfortunately or fortunately, it was not possible to catch any of the monsters, but the traps raised after some time from the bottom of the sea were terribly distorted, and the remains of skin and muscles were stuck between the rods. Experts calculated that the weight of the monsters that deformed the traps was at least three tons! The world-famous Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl told how, while traveling on the Kon-Tiki, he often observed the night “games” of unknown sea monsters, very similar to krakens, and one day green phosphorescent eyes, about 25 centimeters in diameter, looked at him from the depths . According to the scientist, the giant mollusks swam to the surface just to rest, without any hostile purposes. Otherwise, Heyerdahl would face inevitable death.
TANKER SURVIVED KRAKEN ATTACK
At one time, the Norwegian magazine Nature published a sensational message: the Brunsvik tanker with a displacement of 15 thousand tons and a length of 150 meters between Hawaiian Islands and Samoa was attacked by a giant squid. The ship's captain, Arne Grönningseter, reported that the huge cephalopod more than 20 meters long suddenly emerged from the depths and caught up with a ship traveling at a speed of 12 knots. Then he sailed for some time with the tanker on a parallel course at a distance of about 30 meters from the port side. Suddenly, the squid, having overtaken the ship, rushed to attack and grabbed the hull, striking it with strong blows with its beak. Trying to stay on the slippery metal surface of the tanker, the mollusk grabbed it with its tentacles, reaching a thickness of 20-25 cm in diameter. However, under the influence of the oncoming flow of water, it began to slide back to the stern and fell under the propeller, which mortally wounded the animal. Later in the same area Pacific Ocean Brunswick was attacked twice more by giant clams. According to Captain Grenningseter, the squids attacked the tanker, mistaking it for their enemy - the sperm whale. One of the last such incidents took place in January 2003, when French sailors who took part in the round-the-world race for the prize in memory of Jules Verne encountered a giant squid. According to yachtsman Olivier de Kersoisson, the cephalopod attached itself to the stern of their trimaran yacht Jerome nearby. from the Portuguese island of Madeira.
“At first, I looked out the window and saw a huge tentacle. It was thicker than my leg, and it was clear that the squid was pulling our yacht to the bottom with all its might,” he says.
According to the yachtsman, two more tentacles blocked the ship's rudder. But as soon as the yacht stopped, the squid immediately loosened its grip and after a while disappeared into the depths of the ocean.
“We had absolutely nothing to scare him off, why shouldn’t we go at him with penknives?! And I can’t even imagine what we would have done if the squid had been more aggressive,” Olivier recalled.
According to the captain of the French yacht, the length of the squid's body definitely exceeded 8 meters. “I've never seen anything like it. But I spent about forty years at sea,” said the yachtsman.
WOLVES OF THE SEA
But these predators are dangerous not only for sailors, fishermen and divers. They are very gluttonous. Off the west coast of South America in large quantities The Humboldt squid already mentioned above is found. They are called the wolves of the sea, as they calmly deal with fish weighing 300 kilograms! The mollusks wrap their tentacles around the victim and, in a matter of seconds, strip all the meat from the skeleton. David Duncan, American Museum Fellow natural history, during a recent expedition to the coasts of Peru and Chile, I observed how huge dosydicus squids bit through steel fishing lines. And pierced by a spear, they gnaw at it with their beaks with such fury that only splinters fly.
Dosidicus hunt four-pound tunas and eat the giant fish clean.
After for long years While searching in February 2007, fishermen were lucky enough to catch the first living giant squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, in the Ross Sea. This giant specimen weighed 494 kg, its length was ten meters, and its eye had a diameter of 30 cm! At the same time, his age, as scientists found out, was still quite “infant”. To preserve the priceless find, scientists from the New Zealand national museum placed the kraken in a 1200-liter container and then froze it for further research. Small clams, like dolphins, are easy to train. They have excellent memory. They differentiate geometric figures: small square distinguished from a larger one, a rectangle placed vertically, from a rectangle placed horizontally, a circle from a square, a rhombus from a triangle.
Squids recognize people, get used to those who feed them, and if you spend enough time with them, they become tame.
With all this, it is known that the smaller the squid, the stronger its poison, which affects the central nervous system. Marine animals bitten by a squid - crabs, fish and other victims - immediately experience convulsions, and they can no longer resist. The same thing happens with a person.
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