Calm Down, Calamari Lovers

The 990-pound colossal squid hauled out of the icy waters of the Ross Sea on Thursday will not be sliced and grilled to order. It will be preserved for science. It’s the largest invertebrate animal ever found.

According to the Timaru Herald in New Zealand, “The squid is being stored at Sanfords in Timaru before being transferred to Te Papa in Wellington to be preserved for scientific study. It will be photographed, measured, tissue sampled, registered and preserved intact for the National Environment collection.”

The colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) grows up to 14 meters in length. It has the largest eyes in the animal kingdom. Known from only a handful of intact specimens, most evidence of this species’ existence comes from the stomachs of sperm whales.

The colossal squid is even bigger than the better-known giant squid (Architeuthis), which was inspiration for the kraken of Norse legend and the truculent sea monster in Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (this image comes from the book’s first edition courtesy Wikipedia Commons).

BONUS FOR CALAMARI LOVERS: Bruce Schneier’s blog (Schneier on Security) has a weekly feature called Friday Squid Blogging. That led me to this Flickr pix of Softie Couture.