Posted on: Friday, December 21, 2001

'Bizarre' giant squid spotted in deep seas

By Paul Recer
AP Science Writer

A luminous deep-sea squid in the Pacific Ocean observed from submersibles at a depth of 3,380 meters is seen in a May 2001 photo. The deepest sighting of the creature was at 15,534 feet. Associated Press library photo

WASHINGTON — A bizarre creature with 20-foot-long spidery legs that lives in the cold, inky black three miles below the surface of the ocean has been discovered in photographs taken by deep sea submersibles.

"I call it a mystery squid," said Mike Vecchione, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researcher. "It's unlike any other squid I've ever seen."

Vecchione, first author of a study appearing today in the journal Science, said the only evidence of the squid comes from photographs and video images taken during submersible dives. However, he said, the findings are persuasive because they came from eight independent worldwide sightings by scientists from eight institutions in four countries.

The sightings were in the Pacific Ocean off O'ahu, the Atlantic and Indian oceans and in the Gulf of Mexico. The deepest sighting came at 15,534 feet — almost three miles below the surface — in the western Atlantic off the coast of Brazil.

"Not only is this thing really bizarre, it seems to be fairly common in deep waters all over the world," said Vecchione.

Little is known about creatures living in the deep waters of the world's oceans, he said.

"This is the largest unexplored part of the Earth by far," said Vecchione. "I firmly believe that there is a lot of really weird stuff down there that we don't know about.... We are really ignorant about what lives on our own planet" at great depths.

The photos show an animal with a relatively small head topped by large fleshy, collar-like fins. Extending from the base of the head are 10 wispy appendages sweeping out for up to 20 feet. Some of the appendages are sharply bent, as if at a joint. Some scientists reported seeing suckers on the upper part of the limbs. Suckers are a common feature of squid. The largest animal sighted was about 21 feet long, but most of that was legs and tentacles

"It is very distinctive with the very long skinny arms, with an elbow," said Vecchione. "There are 10 appendages there, but they all seem to be pretty much the same. In most squid, two would be tentacles."

The scientist said he could not estimate the weight or mass of the animal but observed: "It is not like a giant squid which has a really massive body. This is a fairly small squid with bizarre arms that stretch on forever."

The deep water home of the squid is a world of darkness, untouched by light from the surface. Many animals living there make their own light with luminescent chemicals in their bodies, but Vecchione said there was no evidence the squid could make light.

For food, Vecchione believes, the squid may use its long arms "like a living spider web."

He said the arms appear to have a sticky coating that could entrap small prey.

"I think it dangles those arms until small organisms bump into them," he said. "It is like a snare."

During one Gulf of Mexico sighting, the squid brushed against the submersible and seemed to have problems dislodging its arms from the vessel hull.

"The arms seemed to stick to it (the vessel) and it had trouble letting go," said Vecchione. This suggests the arms are coated with a sticky mucous, he said.

The mystery squid cannot be named until a specimen is captured and examined, but Vecchione said it appears similar to small squid he and others recently discovered in shallow waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean. Those animals have been named Magnapinnidae Pacifica, meaning "big fin."

Vecchione said the mystery squid may be the adult form of the Magnapinnidae.

Roger T. Hanlon, squid researcher at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., said he was "quite impressed" by the discovery reported by Vecchione and his co-authors.

"It is almost certainly a new family of squids which would be much more significant than a new species," said Hanlon. "It is a wonderfully humbling reminder of how little we know about some aspects of this planet."

He said the feeding system suggested by Vecchione for the mystery squid "is quite plausible" and would be unique among Cephalopods, a group that includes about 1,000 species of squid, octopus and similar animals.