New Scientist Deep Sea special
Just a quick heads-up for all you deep sea lovers. This week’s edition of New Scientist features a special 15 page lift out on the Deep Sea. It is a fairly good read, although there isn’t a lot of joy for squid fans. Apart from a brief mention of the strange and beautiful Bigfin Squid:
Bigfin squid (probably a species of Magnapinna)
This squid, seen on around 10 occasions as deep down as five kilometres, has huge wing-like fins extending from its mantle and very long, slender tentacles. The unique way it holds its tentacles - sticking stiffly out from its body, then bending at right angles and trailing downwards - suggests the bigfin waits for prey to blunder into them. Although the body is less than half a metre long, the tentacles extend seven metres or more. No full-grown bigfin squid has ever been captured, but it is now thought to be the adult form of juvenile Magnapinna squid, which live within a few hundred metres of the surface.
The New Scientist article also includes a small but spectacular photo of the strange creature. Unfortunately this image is not reproduced online. The image looks similar to those on this excellent website, where you can download some amazing videos of this remarkable beast.
A good source of information about the Bigfin Squid is over at the Tree of Life, where you can read the description by Vecchione and Young, 1998. Wikipedia also has an entry, and there are also some pictures at Imagequest Marine.