Community | May 11, 2010 | 34 comments

Colossal squid is a big lazy blob

source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37074628/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Measuring longer than a school bus and sporting tentacles covered in razor-sharp hooks, the colossal squid is the stuff of nightmares. However, new research suggests the enormous sea creature may not be the fierce hunter of legend.

This finding not only upends science's understanding of the squid itself, but forces a re-evaluation of its role in the entire ecosystem where it lives, some 3,000 to 6,000 feet (914 to 1,830 meters) beneath the Antarctic sea.

This new view of the colossal squid comes from data analysis made by marine biologists Rui Rosa, of the University of Lisboa, Portugal, and Brad Seibel, of the University of Rhode Island. Rosa and Seibel looked at the relationship between metabolism (how the body's cells turn food into energy) and body size for smaller squids in the same family and used the information to predict the metabolism of the colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni).

(The so-called giant squid belongs to the genus Architeuthis, a different group of animals from the colossal squid.)

The researchers found that the colossal squid would have had a slower metabolism and so moved slower than expected, waiting for prey rather than running it down. "Everyone thought it was an aggressive predator, but the data suggests otherwise," Rosa told LiveScience. "It's a squid that weighs half a ton with hooks in its tentacles, but our findings show it’s more like just a big blob."

Contrary to the image of Kraken-like shellfish attacking ships and dragging sailors to their deaths, this new data paints a picture of a mostly sedentary creature, Rosa said. Rather than swimming after prey, the colossal squid would wait to ambush passing fish.

And if the colossal squid consumed and expended less energy than previous thought, as this data indicates, then biologists will also need to re-evaluate the squid's role as whale food, Rosa said.
  1. groups:
    Community,   News and Politics
  2. tags:
    Science,  Squid
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34 comments // Colossal squid is a big lazy blob

  • BoomChaka
    • +1
      BoomChaka  

    • Damn you science! I always imagined giants squids and sperm whales going at it in epic glorious underwater battles. Now giant squids are just fat blobs without bones.

    • 2 years ago
  • MizPiz
  • Kurta
    • 0
      Kurta  

    • It seems logical to say that it's lazy. It's only going to be what it needs to be down there. I think they should just leave the poor things alone. They've only survived a couple hundred million years of evolution. I'm a fan of passive observations; there's much more to learn from the animals natural behavior. It's the living creatures that amaze me. I'm talking to you too, Greenland shark researchers.

    • 2 years ago
  • dalistuff
  • ozoneocean
    • +2
      ozoneocean  

    • Ummm... This creature has no legends about it, they were only discovered in 1925. The Giant Squid is the one with all the fable, not this fatboy.

    • 2 years ago
  • good_stuff
    • 0
      good_stuff  

    • If these things are eatedn by whales, wouldn't it be pretty simple to strap a camera onto a whale and see how they behave (at least while being attacked)?

    • 2 years ago
  • bailey78
  • larock
  • bailey78
  • larock
  • bailey78
  • Chinda_Kien
  • Kurta
  • Darevalo
  • bailey78
  • Darevalo
  • freecrack
  • bailey78
  • thewarnerla
    • 0
      thewarnerla  

    • I totally agree with the comments below. Nothing is born with tentacles and hooks on them without being a fierce predator. I say you pull a Pinocchio, get inside a whale and see if there is an attack that occurs.

      So, how did the colossal calamari taste? That's what I want to know...

    • 2 years ago
  • Darevalo
  • pukemnukem
    • +2
      pukemnukem  
    • thewarnerla:

      Tree Sloths have pretty nasty claws (they can eviscerate predators when threatened) yet they are basically harmless to everything else.

      Or if you want an animal with both tentacles and claws that is basically harmless, and even better, is a deep depth animal like the giant squid, look no further than the Vampire Squid, which despite its name, is as lethargic as a sloth.

    • 2 years ago
  • larock
  • bailey78
  • bailey78
    • +1
      bailey78  

    • Well i will tell ya what you do go diveing in a tank with one that is hungry and see how long it takes to eat your ass. Then tell us just how slow or nonaggressive it is. Nobody that i have read or heard of has managed to get up close to a live one. So all this data is inconclusive

    • 2 years ago
  • pukemnukem
    • +1
      pukemnukem  
    • bailey78:

      bailey, if a human was able to interact with these animals in the wild, the human would be the much more interesting specimen to study. The depths at which these animals exists would crush humans (let alone the simple drowning issue). But just as humans cannot exist at their pressure, these animals cannot exist at ours. This is why these animals are only ever found dead or quickly die. So shoving one of these animals into a tank with a human wouldn't prove anything.

    • 2 years ago
  • bailey78
    • +1
      bailey78  
    • pukemnukem:

      Yes I know all that. I have worked on shrimp boats before. You missed the jest of my answer. I'm sorry I'm not as dumb as one may think I do read and have read this story before. Nothing new to me.I would still like to see just how fast this critter is. They are just assuming that it is slow when They don't really know because Like you said they only find them dead or dieing. I'm just guessing you have never worked on anykind of deep water boat? maybe you should take time out of your life and give it a try. One can learn a lot out on the water.

    • 2 years ago
  • pukemnukem
    • 0
      pukemnukem  
    • bailey78:

      If you look closely at my little photo there, you would notice that the one dude is wearing a navy issue poopie suit. So yes...I have worked on and lived in for over half of a decade on a deep water boat.

      Care to share some of those amazing life lessons you learned on that shrimp vessel. All I learned out to sea was I fucking hated it.

    • 2 years ago
  • bailey78
    • 0
      bailey78  
    • pukemnukem:

      I loved being at sea. I guess it's diffrent when you have a chance to fish all day and work all night. I have had my share of nightmares to like hanging up on a bouy or getting Zapped by a stargazer or even getting stung by a scorpion fish and wishing you could chop your hand off. But I guess it's diffrent when your told what to do how to do it and then told you did it wrong. But hey like I said maybe you should take a break and go out on a shrimp boat. You might like it.

    • 2 years ago
  • pukemnukem
    • 0
      pukemnukem  
    • bailey78:

      Having climbed into the seawater side of a condenser for an aircraft carrier main engine numerous times, I have little desire to work on a shrimp boat.

      I used to love how our hands would swell up and glow in the dark slightly from having to remove all the jelly fish getting sucked in and mashed up. Or finding out the hard way that the asshole that supposedly gas freed the condenser blazed off the paper work by passing out from the sulfur gas build up.

      Although I do honestly miss the color of the open Atlantic (a blue richer than any paint) or seeing the dolphins chasing along side of the boat.

    • 2 years ago
  • bailey78
    • +2
      bailey78  
    • pukemnukem:

      Deep water is very pretty. I can remeber the joy of my hands swelling up because of the jellyfish. But hey it was worth the pain to see the deep blue water. You ever do any fishing while at sea? I was always amazed at what we brought up every time we picked up the nets. ell we got a V-dub one night it tore the hell out of the webing and fucked up our chain. But hey not to many people can say they found a car in the Gulf of Mexico.

    • 2 years ago
  • Uncle_B
    • +3
      Uncle_B  

    • Crocodiles (and all reptiles as far as I know) also have a very slow metabolism and typically wait motionless to "ambush" their prey. Does that make them any less dangerous or feared? I don't see the logic here...

    • 2 years ago
  • bailey78
  • JuliusBC
  • bailey78
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