HatTip to Slashdot. This is pretty cool, especially for all you Jules Verne/Sci-Fi fans. Take a look at this National Geographic article if this interests you. It's fascinating to learn that this giant creature is fairly quick and nimble. Also this one was considered small at 26 feet. Imagine the larger ones that supposed grow to 60 feet. I wouldn't be surprised if they attack sharks and other large fish. Also imagine the amount of calamari you could make. Awesome:)
A set of extraordinary images captured by Japanese scientists marks the first-ever record of a live giant squid (Architeuthis) in the wild.
The animal—which measures roughly 25 feet (8 meters) long—was photographed 2,950 feet (900 meters) beneath the North Pacific Ocean. Japanese scientists attracted the squid toward cameras attached to a baited fishing line.
The scientists say they snapped more than 500 images of the massive cephalopod before it broke free after snagging itself on a hook. They also recovered one of the giant squid's two longest tentacles, which severed during its struggle.
The photo sequence, taken off Japan's Ogasawara Islands in September 2004, shows the squid homing in on the baited line and enveloping it in "a ball of tentacles."
Tsunemi Kubodera of the National Science Museum in Tokyo and Kyoichi Mori of the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association report their observations this week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
"Architeuthis appears to be a much more active predator than previously suspected, using its elongated feeding tentacles to strike and tangle prey," the researchers write. (full article)
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