Squid

A squid is a fast-swimming sea animal with eight arms and two longer tentacles. The giant squid and its cousin the colossal squid have the largest eyes of any animal, each about the size of a dinner plate, around 25 to 27 centimetres across.^[1] Scientists believe these huge eyes help the squid spot large predators such as sperm whales in the dark deep sea. Nobody has worked out what the squid does with the plates.

The giant squid

The giant squid can grow to around twelve metres long, including its tentacles. For centuries it was known only from dead specimens washed ashore and from sailors' stories. The first photographs of a living giant squid in the deep sea were taken in 2004, and it was first filmed in its natural habitat in 2012.^[2] It is the only animal that was described in legends long before anyone could prove it was real, and then turned out to be roughly as described.

Jet propulsion

Squid swim by jet propulsion: they draw water into their body and squirt it out through a funnel. Some small squid shoot themselves out of the sea and glide through the air for short distances. A squid flying past a boat is not a legend; it is just a squid that has gone a bit too fast.

When threatened, squid squirt out a cloud of dark ink to confuse attackers and make a getaway. It is the only known use of ink in which the writer leaves before the reader has finished.

See also

• Octopus – a close relative with no tentacles
• Ocean – the deep part
• Circle – the shape of its eye

References

1. Kraken, K. (2005). Real After All. Abyss Press.
2. Plate, D. (1998). “How Big Is That Eye?” Deep Sea Notes 27: 1.
3. Ink, I. (2012). Leaving Before the Reader. Inkwell Books.