Usually, on my morning walk, I keep my eyes open for any squid that might have washed up on the sidewalks of Morris. Now I learn that the squid wash up on the beaches of Tasmania. I suppose a place nearer an ocean is a more likely spot. (By the way, TONMO is the site to check for more news on the beached squid carcass—and they think it is unlikely that it's actually a giant squid.)
Maybe I should start scanning for dead baby mammoths, instead.
- Log in to post comments
More like this
The foreshadowing last week was accurate. This week, we offer a review of Tentacles! Tales of the Giant Squid by Shirley Raye Redmond with illustrations by Bryn Barnard.
Younger offspring: We should talk about my new squid book for the Friday Sprog Blog.
Dr. Free-Ride: OK. What do you like…
Almost exactly one year ago, a very large double strength tsunami struck the Pacific Coast of Japan and washed a huge amount of stuff out into the sea. The oceanic born debris of terrestrial origin looked in places like this:
source
Subsequently attempts were made to model the movement of the…
Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid by Wendy Williams is a new book on the science of squid.
I wondered at first why a popular science book would be named after a legendary creature (the Kraken) but when I read the book and also read up on The Kraken it became…
A potential new record holder for the largest giant squid washed ashore in western Tasmania. The individual came in at 550 lbs (250 kg) and stretched 26 ft (8 m) from head to the end of its severed tentacles. The specimen was extremely damaged and might measure longer. In the standard metric of…
According to zoologist Genefor Walker-Smith:
There goes that idea.
And as fresh water is less dense than salt, a hypothetical Minnesotan fresh-water giant squid (Architeuthis pharyngulae) would need to be even more ammoniacal - and even less edible - in order to remain buoyant.
Er, not that anyone is trying to create such a beast, of course. Certainly, there is no reason to suppose that such a project would take place at UMM. Nor would it be funded by monies diverted from the university catering budget under the misleading account name "PROJECT LUTESQUID".
Sometimes kitty-cats leave half eaten sparrows on my street.
I thought it rather resembled Rupert Murdoch. Sorry to the squid.
From the article:
Nastier? How do they know? Have they been seen taking lollipops from small children? Perhaps the specimens they've found have just been having a bad day. Being caught in fishing nets, and dragged across the ocean away from the tentacles of your loving squid-spouse and larvae does tend to put a damper on things. Even worse if you discover you're going to be microwaved later.
Bob
Squid? Yawn. Wouldn't you rather read an article about Great-tits?
PZ, I think it's time for Skatje to practice her baking skills:
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/sku9217829/index.cfm?pkey=cNEWC…
Why should Skatje have to do the baking?
Additional nitpicking: The "Colossal Squid" was not found recently, Mesonychoteuthis was described in 1925. Also of interest is that Gerald Wood's Guinness Book of Animal Facts and Feats (1982) mentions a Dr. Anna M. Bidder at Cambridge who possess(ed?) a section of pen from a Mesy estimated to come from an individual with a ~16 foot mantle, similar to O'Shea's estimate of a 4 meter mantle length maximum. There apparently was a preserved specimen in the British Museum with a mantle length of ~3 meters.
Of course, all of these remains did come from Sperm Whales, fresh ones are much more exciting. I'm baffled as to why evidence suggesting Colossal squids apparently went by unheralded for so long.
Hey, I knew Anna - and that she had been a marine biologist in her youth - but sadly I never got to see any of her specimens. It's a small world...
> and they think it is unlikely that it's actually a giant squid
Hi -- this is tonmo, from TONMO.com. I was the one who thought that it looked more like Mesonychoteuthis than Architeuthis. The TONMO.com community has convinced me otherwise!
...Thanks PZ for the acknowledgement! B-)
"Nor would it be funded by monies diverted from the university catering budget under the misleading account name "PROJECT LUTESQUID"."
Which suggests that Minnesotans might not actually mind an ammonia-infused calamari dish.
If they eat things steeped in lye, why not ammonia?