The huge squid is one of the most essential natural animals, discovered the first time 100 years ago, and since then scientists have not been able to monitor it in its natural environment again.
Now, for the first time ever, researchers from the Schmidt Institute of Oceans in the United States have succeeded in photographing the first confirmed footage of the Yafi neighborhood of “Mizonicotiotis Hamletoni” in his natural environment in the depths of the seas.
This small squid, which is about 30 centimeters long, was filmed at a depth of 600 meters, near the southern Sandwich Islands in the southern Atlantic Ocean, this small can reach a size when it grows up to 7-10 meters, and a weight of approximately half of the tons.
“This is the first time that the huge squash is depicted in a non -surgical way, alive and not dead on the surface of a ship or torn in a hunting network,” says Catherine Polstad, Catherine Polstad, a legs expert and professor participating at Oakland University of Technology in New Zealand.
Discovery
Last March, a team of scientists – who were part of the ocean census project – recorded the shots during an international mission that lasted for 35 days to discover marine life in a very far area, to the extent that the closest people were hundreds of miles away at the International Space Station.
The Falkour Research Team of the Schmidt Institute of Oceans used a submarine that is controlled remotely, to monitor this type of mollusk on the centenary of its discovery and name for the first time.
“On this exploratory journey, they were looking for new species and naval habitats, and by chance this small huge squash was drifted in front of the submarine cameras in the water of the blackness of blackness, from which a light of his manufacture emanates, and when they realized the extent of its beauty, they stopped and photographed it for a few minutes.”
The team was not at the beginning of what the squid was, the shots were validated and the identity of the marine being appeared in it with a group of experts from inside and outside the search journey, among them Polstad, who says, “This is how we got what we know now with the first confirmed footage of the huge dress while doing what we call natural behaviors, and this is our first opportunity to see him alive while practicing his role in his homeland.”
100 years of monitoring
The modern scientist paid attention to the presence of the huge squid when marine biologist James Eric Hamilton found parts of one of them, including two arms, in the stomach of the amber whale near the Chitland Islands in Scotland in 1925. The parts were returned to the British Museum in London, where they were officially identified as a new type in the same year.
Since then, the huge squid has not been alive in the depths, but Polstad says, “We have been able to confirm its presence in its natural environment. We have some shots of huge, adult pools that climb to the surface, following serrated fish hanging with long strands, which is known to be that this type of squid is invalidated.”
For decades, the squid continued this strange being in leaving interesting traces, as more than one excessive squid was previously depicted by fishermen, and parts of partially digested inside the cut whales and other animals were found.
In 1981, a huge squid of about 6 meters was suspended in one of the windows of the Soviet fishing ship “Yorica” unintentionally. This sample, which was quickly spent, was not believed to be fully developed.
Then in 2003, a huge dead squid was found upstanding off the southern coast of New Zealand. This time, it reached 20 feet.
Footage of a huge, lively hunting shore of 2005, from a boat in the southern Atlantic waters.
In 2007, one of the living squids fell into the trap of another fishing boat, and was severely injured. This time in the Russian Sea, near Antarctica. This squid appeared with a length of 10 meters, as if it was completely developed.
Colosal’s research organization picked up footage of the same type of the same type as Antarctica as part of the organization’s monitoring campaign in the period 2023-2024, but the lack of high-resolution clips made it impossible to distinguish between the types of squid that it belongs to because its features were not clear.
With the presence of these dead samples and sporadic shots on the sea, it is difficult to estimate the global huge population, and the Museum of Natural History in London in 2022 indicated that a lack of monitoring means that “to this day, these huge invertebrates are still swinging between legend and reality.”
To correctly understand the lives of these animals, scientists needed to monitor one of them swimming in the depths, but any submarine hoped to monitor them was facing a challenge because of the eyes of these huge creatures and their cautious nature.
“Unfortunately, it requires a lot of equipment that we are trying to use to monitor things in the depths of the seas with bright lights in order to be able to photograph, as it makes a lot of noise, and may frighten these animals, so our relentless efforts to see them often frighten them, because they will know our existence a long time before our knowledge of their existence.”
From the heaviest invertebrates on the planet
Although seeing the huge squid in its native (deep open water around the Antarctica and in the Southern Ocean), some of the few healthy samples largely allowed scientists to collect reasonable assumptions about it.
The weight of the heaviest body of an adult, recovered animal, which was displaced at the New Zealand Museum “Taba Tonghario” in Wellington (National Museum of New Zealand), is more than 400 kg, which makes this type the heaviest invertebrates known on this planet. Experts believe that this mysterious animal grows until it reaches about 7-10 meters (23 feet), and weighs up to 500 kilograms.
“One might think that he is very huge, and it is funny to imagine that we have a huge and small squid at the same time, but in reality this is what we have. Instead of seeing that huge animal we imagined, we see this beautiful image of a small animal,” says Polstad.
This was led by Polstad, who was one of the experts to whom the footage was sent to check it to another sudden conclusion, which is that this squid can be considered a “teenager” who has lost some of his “childish features”, such as his prominent elderly eyes on both sides of his head.
Distinguished features
The huge squid belongs to the “Cranksidai” family, and is often referred to as “glass squid”, and the reason is completely clear, as Polstad says: “As you can see, the legend of the Karkan is not very similar to. If you look at the shots, it looks like a beautiful small glass carved floating in the water.”
This huge type is undoubtedly the most mysterious among 60 known types of glass squid, so much is not known about its life cycle and behaviors, but seeing this medium size between its young and adults allows scientists the opportunity to solve some of the missing puzzles in the history of the life of this very mysterious animal.
The younger huge squash lives in medium depths, in the dismissed periphery area, which is also known as middle water, and as it is old and rapid growth, it is believed to descend to the depths of the seas, and may live at a depth of a few kilometers.
As with other types of its species, the huge squid often appears transparent, which helps it to avoid predators and ambushes, and this is achieved thanks to the dye vesicles called “chromatovas”, which are changing cells found on other types of glass squid.
As for any dark parts remaining from the body, such as his two giant eyes that cannot transform into two transparents, they are hidden from the predators that swim under it by light -born organs called “photovavens”, which can mimic the ocean luster at the top.
This means, according to “Polstad”, that “it is certain that most of the squid body can switch from complete transparency – which we often see in these shots – to complete blackout, and may have an accurate control of its ability to do this in certain areas of the body as well.”
Another distinctive feature of this type is the presence of a pair of large firm hooks in the middle of each of its eight arms, while two of the longest sensors contain fully rotating hooks at their end.
Despite what its name might suggest, the huge squash is not one of the main predators, even when the squid reaches its full size. However, the scars that he left from his fake and sophisticated claws indicate many amber whales and sleeper sharks that he tried to repel it fiercely resisting.
It also seems to be a large so -called so -called in semi -Antarctic areas, including Chilean ticks and other types of squid, using their unique sensors.
One of the most attention in these animals is its very large eyes, each of which is almost the size of football, and it is possible that the eyes of the exaggerated squid have evolved to monitor the huge and powerful predators in the depths of the seas, such as sleeping sharks and amber whales that dive deep into the ocean for hunting from a long distance.