A squid approximately three meters long was found floating in the sea, dead, off the coast of Tenerife, in the Canary Islands (Spain). The incredibly preserved 200 kg corpse was found by photographer and nature researcher Teo Lucas and taken to the Spanish Institute of Oceanography for investigation.
“Most of the research animals come from the stomach contents of sperm whales or are specimens washed up on beaches, so they are in very poor condition and often unfilled,” said Jon Ablett, Senior Curator of Molluscs and Cephalopods at the Museum. of Natural History in London, in an interview with Newsweek.
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This was not the case with the giant squid discovered by Lucas. Even its enormous eyeballs – the largest known eyes in the animal kingdom – were still in their proper places. The only part missing was the tip of one of the tentacles, which is believed to have been torn off by the animal that killed it.
In a Facebook post, the Society for the Study of Cetaceans in the Canary Archipelago (SECAC), said the mollusk was just a juvenile and that adults can grow even larger.
“It is believed that the giant squid with the scientific name Architeuthis dux reaches up to 12 meters in length in the mature stage,” said Ablett. "And the colossal squid Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni may reach an even larger size in terms of mass and possibly length as well, although no one has yet found a fully mature specimen."
According to Ablett, a 2013 study estimated that up to 131 million giant squid are eaten by sperm whales, their top predator, each year.
This type of squid can be found in all of the world's oceans, although it is rarely seen in polar regions or around the equator. "They are most commonly found in waters around New Zealand and Japan, in the North Atlantic and in waters around South Africa," Ablett said.
Due to its elusive nature, our grasp of this species is quite limited. Analysis of the incredibly preserved specimen discovered on Tenerife could therefore provide important insights into the biology of this creature.
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