Colossal Squid at Te Papa Museum in New Zealand

Posted by Alex in Animal, Pictures on April 30, 2008 at 8:45 pm



Photo: Te Papa Blog

That’s Dr. Steve O’Shea and Dr. Tsunemi Kubodera of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, preparing to preserve their colossal squid specimen, caught in the Ross Sea in February 2007 and kept frozen until now.

Everyone’s enthralled with the squid’s eyes, which are the size of dinner plates. But I was more amazed at the tentacle hooks:

The arm hooks are set in fleshy, very muscular sheaths and are strongly attached to the arms. They are likely to assist in holding and immobilising struggling prey as it is being killed and eaten. Most of the arm hooks have the main strong ‘claw’ (visible below), and also two smaller auxiliary cusps closer to the hook’s base, making them three-pointed and maximising their ability to hold and dig in. The base of each hook also has a complex structure that is set deep into the surrounding musculature. (Source)


Photo: Kat Bolstad

The Te Papa’s Blog has the entire story: Link – Thanks Geekazoid!


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COMMENT

18 comments to "Colossal Squid at Te Papa Museum in New Zealand"

  1. fsmarch
    April 30th, 2008 at 9:35 pm

    Ugly critter!

  2. jenny
    April 30th, 2008 at 9:46 pm

    haha i watched the live video of the examination:D
    i feel so proud lol, and that just goes to show us what things could be out there in the sea...

  3. bean
    April 30th, 2008 at 10:04 pm

    Yarrr, tis a frightful beast.

  4. fsmarch
    April 30th, 2008 at 10:22 pm

    Critter speaks well of us, though!

  5. Christophe
    April 30th, 2008 at 10:57 pm

    Wow. How many woks do you need to cook this one?!

  6. otterly
    April 30th, 2008 at 11:53 pm

    My God, I can't imagine how that room smells.

  7. Ali S.
    May 1st, 2008 at 1:17 am

    @ Christophe

    Dude, calamari buffet in my backyard! And everyones invited! :D

  8. fz
    May 1st, 2008 at 2:04 am

    Tastywater

  9. meghan
    May 1st, 2008 at 8:42 am

    waders or not, I really wouldn't want to stand in a vat of preservative

  10. Rich
    May 1st, 2008 at 9:16 am

    preservative?... nah, that's lemon butter.

  11. fsmarch
    May 1st, 2008 at 11:42 am

    Calamari, eh?

    I'll bring the wine!

  12. Lea
    May 1st, 2008 at 6:59 pm

    Whoa! They finally thawed it! I thought it would take a while.

  13. Lea
    May 1st, 2008 at 7:00 pm

    Or was that another giant squid?

  14. CheeseDuck
    May 1st, 2008 at 7:02 pm

    Those things eat grey whales. I would not like to meet one in person.

  15. Thomas
    May 3rd, 2008 at 2:47 pm

    The japanese have been looking for this bad boy for years to fulfill their dreams of live action tentacle porn.

  16. Lucy at Te Papa
    July 31st, 2008 at 5:19 pm

    Hey next episode in SquidCam....

    We're pulling our squid out of formalin and moving it to its new display tank. Steve O'Shea will be there to sew up a rip in the mantle and examine it now it's preserved.

    The live webcast is only for 1 day on Wednesday 6 August starting 9am NZ time (USA: Tuesday 5 August 2pm to 5pm, UK: Tuesday 10pm).

    Check out the full programme on Te Papa's website.
    Hope you can join us!

  17. Cassie
    February 24th, 2009 at 7:52 pm

    I really love how they hav preserved this squid. there is not much nown and haveing the squid preserved the way it is has helped the marin science's a lot in understanding more about the squid, and i watched the show they had about this, and it was absolutly fasanting!!!

  18. AznNMG
    April 10th, 2009 at 9:17 pm

    WOW! You c how ugly that thing is? i bet once theyre done they take a HOUR shower!


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