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The giant squid remains largely a mystery to scientists despite being the biggest invertebrate on Earth. The largest of these elusive giants ever found measured 59 feet in length and weighed ...
- Anatomy, Diversity & Evolution. Anatomy. A giant squid’s body may look pretty simple: Like other squids and octopuses, it has two eyes, a beak, eight arms, two feeding tentacles, and a funnel (also called a siphon).
- Ecology & Behavior. Distribution. Giant squid are thought to swim in the ocean worldwide, based on the beaches they've washed upon, as shown in the map (via Wikimedia Commons).
- Squids at the Smithsonian. Meet Clyde Roper. Dr. Clyde Roper grew up close to the ocean and was a lobster fisherman before going to graduate school, where he studied squid.
- Cultural Connections. Giant Squid of Myth. The giant squid has captured the human imagination for more than 2,000 years. For a long time, people who spotted them floating, dead, at sea or washed up on beaches couldn’t figure out what they were.
Like all squid, a giant squid has a mantle (torso), eight arms, and two longer tentacles (the longest known tentacles of any cephalopod). The arms and tentacles account for much of the squid's great length, making it much lighter than its chief predator, the sperm whale.
Giant squid, any member of a genus of large, elusive cephalopods inhabiting deep regions of temperate to subtropical marine waters. Thought to be the largest or second largest living invertebrate, the giant squid has been frequently depicted as a sea monster in literature and by mariners throughout history.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
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Jun 26, 2019 · The giant squid is a mollusk and a member of the cephalopod class, which includes the octopus and other squids. As such, nearly all cephalopods such as squid can squirt ink as an escape measure when threatened. This ability is possible through the use of the squid’s ink sacs and water propulsion.
Architeuthis dux. The giant squid ( Architeuthis dux ) is a species of deep-ocean dwelling squid in the family Architeuthidae. It can grow to a tremendous size, offering an example of deep-sea gigantism: recent estimates put the maximum size at around 12–13 m (39–43 ft) for females and 10 m (33 ft) for males, from the posterior fins to the ...
