First ever confirmed image of a colossal squid in the deep ocean

The massive squid – the largest invertebrates on the planet – was alive in its wild home for the first time.

For decades, the massive squid that resembles kneads (Mesonychoteuteis HamiltoniIt was a legend more than reality: Scientists had no mysterious feeling of its appearance of the fragments of its remains in the stomachs of whales that eat mollusks. In fact, it was through these remains that the species were officially described by zoologists in 1925.

Finally, in 1981, the fishermen on the Antarctica accidentally set the massive direct squid into their fishing nets. Since then, animals have been killed sometimes as hunting, or washed dead on the beach.

Last month, a ship of Chamidt Institute OceanA non -profit organization based in the United States, which was wiping the southern ocean near the southern Sandwich Islands and feeding on the footage of its distant deep cameras, when one of the viewers online informed them that they had just photographed the massive squid.

On the edge, the researchers sent high -resolution clips to independent squid experts. Experts confirmed that the intuition of the viewer online was true: Al -Houbar had distinct hooks along the virtues on his eight arms, which is a distinctive feature of the huge dress. He wandered at a height of 600 meters below the surface of the water.

While it is believed that the massive squid grows up to 7 meters and weighs 500 kg, the squid that was hunting on the camera was only 30 cm long: a child.

“It is surprising that every time we go to the depths of the sea, we find something new and exciting.” Gytica Fermanani From the ocean Schmidt Institute.

Massive squid Maybe it was already photographed In its natural home in 2023 by non -profit non -profit researchers, US -based, Colosal – But the vision cannot be confirmed because the shots were very low in quality. The recording of the new squid may indicate that 2023 shots really pick up the massive squid. “It is the same size, the same color, similar depths, both in the Southern Ocean,” he says Mullernan died In Kolossal, which is still waiting for more confirmation.

However, there are yet no clips of the massive squid in the wild, and the life of these giant invertebrates is still mysterious, he says Steve OchiaPreviously at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand, which formulated the name “Squid Colossal” in the early first decade of the twentieth century. He once described the animals as “very evil debts of depth”, but now convinced that they resemble “giant gel ticks, simply wandering in the water column near the sea bed.”