For a century, scientists have searched for a titan lurking in the oceans’ depths: a squid that can weigh up to half a ton. Now, a team of researchers has revealed the first video ever taken of this enormous predator, the colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni), in its natural deep-water habitat—and managed to spot the animal in its youth.
“We get to introduce the live colossal squid to the world as this beautiful, little, delicate animal,” Kat Bolstad, an Auckland University of Technology biologist who helped confirm the squid’s identity, said during a 15 April press conference. She adds that the find “highlights the magnificence of a lot of deep-sea creatures without some of that monster hype.”
The minuteslong footage of the elusive species, the largest known invertebrate, comes from a team of biologists who filmed it on 9 March in the South Atlantic Ocean as part of an expedition to survey marine life aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s R/V Falkor (too). During the vessel’s stop near the South Sandwich Islands, the researchers deployed a remotely operated vehicle to a depth of 600 meters and livestreamed its video feed.
After the vehicle spotted a 30-centimeter-long baby squid, a viewer who wasn’t involved with the expedition sent a screenshot to independent squid biologist Aaron Evans, who quickly conferred with Bolstad to vet the expedition’s high-resolution footage. The squid’s distinctive tentacles and fin shape confirmed to Evans and Bolstad that the research vessel had stumbled upon a colossal squid. “I started hyperventilating,” Evans said during the press conference.
The transparent juvenile will become an opaque red as it grows, but little else is known about the life history of the 7-meter-long species, which has only rarely been seen alive. When the colossal squid was first described 100 years ago, all scientists could examine were remains found in the stomach of a sperm whale.
Since then, a few specimens inadvertently captured by fishing vessels have revealed more about the squid’s anatomy, including its gargantuan proportions. At 27 centimeters across, its eyes are wider than soccer balls and the largest known in the animal kingdom. In addition to eight well-suckered arms, the squid boasts a longer pair of tentacles with hooks that can swivel 360°, probably to help it hold onto struggling prey after ambushing them in the murky depths.
The new footage extends a streak of squid sightings for the R/V Falkor (too). In January, another team on the vessel took the first video of a relative of the colossal squid, the glacial glass squid (Galiteuthis glacialis), in the Bellingshausen Sea close to Antarctica. “The first sighting of two different squids on back-to-back expeditions is remarkable and shows how little we have seen of the magnificent inhabitants of the Southern Ocean,” Schmidt Ocean Institute Executive Director Jyotika Virmani said in a press statement. “These unforgettable moments continue to remind us that the Ocean is brimming with mysteries yet to be solved.”
