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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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Nature tells man to consult reason, and to take it for his guide: religion teaches him that his reason is corrupted, that it is only a treacherous guide, given by a deceitful God to lead his creatures astray. Nature tells man to enlighten himself, to search after truth, to instruct himself in his duties: religion enjoins him to examine nothing, to remain in ignorance, to fear truth.
[Paul Henry Thiry d'Holbach, "Systeme de la Nature" (1770)]
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Category: Cephalopods • Organisms
Posted on: November 5, 2009 11:00 AM, by PZ Myers
Be not faint of heart, O Loyal Cephalopodophiles, but National Geographic has a whole series of photos of a squid slaughter.
The whales are shameless. They're just swimming around with tattered corpses dangling from their mouths, and they even dandle the bits in front of their babies, to encourage them to join in the wanton massacre.
Oh, the architeuthidae.
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Comments
Posted by: Glen Davidson
|
November 5, 2009 11:08 AM
I'll admit that I walk around with pieces of IDists hanging out of my mouth.
But squid are innocent, damn it!
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
Posted by: Michelle R | November 5, 2009 11:11 AM
Quick! Call the japanese! they'll stop those WHALES!
Posted by: JD | November 5, 2009 11:11 AM
It's time for squid retaliation measures.
Posted by: Janine The Ineffable, OM | November 5, 2009 11:15 AM
Glen, how do you get away with having random body parts dangling from your mouth?
Posted by: Sir Eccles | November 5, 2009 11:18 AM
Well to be fair, the squid did bomb Hiroshima!
Posted by: BigBob | November 5, 2009 11:19 AM
Apparently, if you take one of those recordings of 'Whale song' and speeeeed it up, the result sounds a bit like 'Om nom nom'.
Bob
Posted by: Glen Davidson
|
November 5, 2009 11:19 AM
It's, you know, one of those neighborhoods.
Personally, I think it's way more rude of the zombies to be dragging a leg or some such thing, and they don't care if you're IDist or something smarter, either.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | November 5, 2009 11:23 AM
Random?
Random?!?
How about "intelligently designed", huh?
Posted by: Janine The Ineffable, OM | November 5, 2009 11:24 AM
More proof the biologists are very bad assed and just a bit scary.
Posted by: vanharris
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November 5, 2009 11:25 AM
Awwww geeee, God doesn't like squid.
Posted by: Rachel Bronwyn
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November 5, 2009 11:31 AM
Not so giant now, huh, squid?
You can tell I'm on Team Cetacea.
Posted by: John D Stackpole | November 5, 2009 11:33 AM
PZ never ate calamari?
(There is a certain likeness there...)
Posted by: The Science Pundit | November 5, 2009 11:36 AM
PZ,
How did you teach your children to eat calamari? ;-)
Posted by: True Bob | November 5, 2009 11:42 AM
The natural progression is that one day the proletariat squid will rise up and overthrow the bourgoisie cetaceans. I read it from Karl Marxiteuthis.
Posted by: SoreLoser | November 5, 2009 11:45 AM
Personally, I liked the "squid with elbows" video. Link
Posted by: Nerd of Redhead, OM
|
November 5, 2009 11:45 AM
PZ probably took his kids to the Sushi bar in Morris.Posted by: Alessa Mendes | November 5, 2009 11:52 AM
"They're just swimming around with tattered corpses dangling from their mouths"
Maybe it's just saving some for later...
Posted by: Peter G.
|
November 5, 2009 11:57 AM
My sympathy for the architeuthis is somewhat mitigated by the knowledge of what they'd do to me if they could get their beaks into my vitals. Where you find yourself on the food chain alters your perspective somewhat.
Posted by: Kraid
|
November 5, 2009 12:03 PM
Fuck yoouuuu, whaaaale!
Posted by: dogmeatib | November 5, 2009 12:03 PM
Delicious and nutritious, tastes just like.... oh, I'm not supposed to support this? Sorry,
BAD!!! BAD CETACEAN!!!! BAD!!!
Posted by: Sili
|
November 5, 2009 12:04 PM
Well, this at least is a problem that'll be solved soon enough as pointed out by MichelleR.
What, by the way, is the point of whales? Do they fill some sorta indispensable niche in the ocean, or are they just ... well ... there?
Posted by: True Bob | November 5, 2009 12:07 PM
The point of whales is they are squidgod's vengeance on architeuthis for eating shellfish.
Posted by: BeamStalk | November 5, 2009 12:09 PM
I take it none of these pictures will make a Friday Cephalopod or should that be survive...
Posted by: SimonG | November 5, 2009 12:14 PM
There are some great photos on the SERPENT site:
http://www.serpentproject.com/gal.php
I hadn't heard of this project before, but there was a reference to it in one of the National Geographic articles.
Viva los Vertebrados!
Posted by: Mrs Tilton | November 5, 2009 12:15 PM
Glen Davidson: But squid are innocent, damn it!
Agent Rogersz: No one is innocent.
Posted by: aratina cage of the OM
|
November 5, 2009 12:29 PM
The Daily Mail had a short October 28th article about this sighting in which they interviewed Tony Wu, one of the photographers (link to article).
Posted by: DaveX | November 5, 2009 12:54 PM
Goes to show you how screwed-up our world is (and how cynical I am) that I misread the headline as "MAINE tragedy..." and didn't bat an eyelash.
Posted by: taranaki
|
November 5, 2009 1:00 PM
mmmmmmm.....calamari!
Picture a scene like this with PZ instead of Charlton Heston -
"It's squid ... calamari is squid!"
Posted by: Cuttlefish, OM | November 5, 2009 1:07 PM
Photos of squid's laughter? Sounds like cuttledaughter's last birthday party!
What?
*reads again*
NNNnnnnnnnoooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!
(on the other hand, it explains why the guy with the cake never showed up...)
Posted by: afarensis, FCD | November 5, 2009 1:13 PM
It explains why Cthulhu has not risen from the depths, he's afraid of the sperm whales!
Posted by: Traveler | November 5, 2009 1:16 PM
That's some amazingly clear water.
Posted by: Ray Moscow | November 5, 2009 1:17 PM
I joined the whales in squid carnage last week. Twice.
Yes, in time Cthulhu may well have his revenge, but for now we mammals rule the earth. Bawahahaha!
Posted by: Charles | November 5, 2009 1:23 PM
But the whales have Jesus on their side (just ask Jonah), so it's all perfectly justified.
Posted by: eigenvector | November 5, 2009 1:48 PM
What about the whale that was run over by a NOAA research vessel a couple of weeks ago? The violence was so bad the whale died and washed up on a beach at Fort Bragg, California. Is nobody kind of curious/upset why a research vessel wasn't watching a sonar in a known whale area? It was a NOAA "research" (scare quotes!) vessel for Pete's sake!
Posted by: Your Name's Not Bruce?
|
November 5, 2009 1:52 PM
PZ; be careful where you wear that hat of yours.
Posted by: flyonthewall | November 5, 2009 2:12 PM
The earth was perfectly designed for the whales.
squids.... not so much.
Posted by: mythusmage
|
November 5, 2009 2:26 PM
#33
That would be a "great fish", not whale. I doubt the author (the guy who actually wrote it) even knew what a whale was.
Posted by: aratina cage of the OM
|
November 5, 2009 2:32 PM
Me too. The tragedy in Maine is still fresh in my mind.Posted by: David | November 5, 2009 2:42 PM
Look at how the squid is perfectly designed to fit in the whales mouth. It's exactly the right size. It has ridges exactly where the whale's teeth go in. The side opposite the tentacles is pointed to indicate which end should go in first. And it has a nice white color when it's ready to eat. Over-ripe and it gets brown spots. Oh wait, take the last one back. Anyways, the squid is perfectly designed for the whale, and that proves there must be a whale-god.
Posted by: cervantes | November 5, 2009 2:55 PM
Photo courtesy of Moby Dick and the Seamen.
Posted by: eddie
|
November 5, 2009 3:19 PM
That serpentproject site sure has great pic galleries. Thanks SimonG. It's SWF programming ids as bit faffed but nobody's perfect.
Posted by: eddie
|
November 5, 2009 3:42 PM
Also from the serpentproject site; http://www.serpentproject.com/assets/images/norway_image_gallery/norway%20image%20gallery.swf
The deep cold seabed between norway shetland and faroes is practically basketstar city. I never knew such things existed. The cirrate octopus in the Norway section is also partticularly lovely.
They have this pic in the Eire section where the caption talks of a monkfish being an ambush predator and your first thought is "that's a crab". then you look closely and think "poor crab is about to get eaten".
Posted by: FlameDuck | November 5, 2009 3:57 PM
Get PETA on this ASAP!
Posted by: Lee Picton | November 5, 2009 5:08 PM
Squid are known to have those ink sacs which they spray at some predators knowing it is distasteful to them. Does a whale not mind the taste of the ink when it knows it can get a whole squid? I think if I were a whale I would rather provoke a squid into inking me before I ate it. Maybe it would taste better. This is actually a serious question. Does anybody know the answer?
Posted by: mothra | November 5, 2009 6:19 PM
It appears that the perfect eye doesn't stand a chance against the perfect sonar system. AND, when whales overindulge on calamari, they barf ambergris. Sea life 2, humans 0. :>
Posted by: Dire Lobo | November 5, 2009 7:58 PM
Great Post PZ! DAMN THOSE CETACEANS!
Posted by: Crudely Wrott | November 5, 2009 8:01 PM
Traveler @31 said: "That's some amazingly clear water."
That was my first reaction. Being in water of such clarity is like floating weightlessly like you would in micro gravity. And it can be a startling experience.
I was water skiing on the Gulf of Mexico once and the calmness of the water allowed me to stay up for a personal record distance. Six and a half miles according to dead reckoning, straight out from shore. I did fall off eventually and as I was getting my skis back on I ducked under with eyes open. There was no sign of bottom.The sun was high in the sky and coincidentally right behind my head and I saw the rays of light going down, down through the crystal water to converge at a point way far below me. And emblazoned on that vanishing point, like a confirmation of my existence, was a tiny silhouette of myself. My shadow.
The vertigo only lasted a few seconds but it was absolutely delicious. I recommend the experience to you and to everyone.
Oh, this was one of the extremely few times that I was under the surface of the Gulf and saw no other living things before me. Just my shadow down deep. Deep, where the true denizens of the world await their moment to subsume the dry lands above.
Posted by: Pacal
|
November 5, 2009 8:02 PM
P.Z. Myers said:
Yup nature can indeed be bloody ruthless, along with awesome in it's beauty. Living in Canada I wonder when the more extreme Animal Rights people will be protesting against Sperm whales to be more humane? But then Squid are just not as puppy dog cute like baby seals.
Posted by: may | November 5, 2009 9:07 PM
Cuttlefish.(i know you love them.)
A place called the Spensers(Spencers?Gulf is the breeding ground of the worlds largest.(apparently)
their place is to have a humungous long pipeline of highly saline water piped from a uranium mine run by bhp.
i don't know if you know but think you should.
they are very sensitive to saline levels and it is the only place they breed.
Posted by: Desert Son
|
November 5, 2009 10:40 PM
National Geographic photos: don't leave home without them.
Amazing photos. Thanks for this post, PZ.
[New complementary close under construction],
Robert
Posted by: Cuttlefish, OM | November 5, 2009 11:08 PM
@May #49--
http://digitalcuttlefish.blogspot.com/2007/12/please-australia.html
thank you for caring
on behalf of cuttlefish
all over the world
Posted by: Riaan Moll | November 6, 2009 2:20 AM
Cthulhu will have his vengeance!
Posted by: llewelly | November 6, 2009 12:39 PM
Auug. It's been an entire day, and I'm still misreading the title of this post as "Maine Tragedy".
Posted by: Acronym Jim | November 6, 2009 2:07 PM
Um, Bob? You've got something stuck in your teeth.
Posted by: baju
|
February 2, 2010 5:13 AM
I think it's way more rude of the zombies to be dragging a leg or some such thing