The largest squid in the world. Kraken - the largest squid

Architeuthis is a giant squid that lives in the sea. This sea dweller has been scaring people for many centuries. This deep-sea squid belongs to the Architeuthidae family. Thousands of researchers are willing to give a lot to see it.

There is nothing strange in the fact that scientists around the world are putting an incredible amount of effort into studying this amazing animal. Architeuthis first appeared in photographs in 2004. In the photos that were taken, big squid was in a normal sphere for him - water. In the photo taken you can see what it has very incredible sizes.

Places of distribution

Architeuthis, which is very large, lives in the oceans that are scattered throughout the planet. Very often they were found near the British Isles, in the oceans South Africa, next to Norway and Newfoundland . And the biggest ones were noticed near New Zealand, Australia and close to Japanese Islands. Much less common in the tropics and polar regions.

In order for these marine species to feel comfortable, they need places whose depth reaches three hundred meters, or even more; there are cases when the animal was discovered at a depth of a thousand meters.

Diet of deep-sea mollusks

Huge individuals hunt alone. These animals feed mainly on fish and shellfish, which live on great depth in the ocean. It uses its tentacles to catch prey. To swallow the victim, he divides it into small pieces with his teeth and tongue, before grabbing it with his suction cups. Before entering the esophagus, the food falls into the squid's huge beak.

These big animals lead isolated life. Proof of this is the fishermen who work in different parts planets. They often took architeuthis out of their networks, but always one at a time. More than one large clam never seen in one fishing net.

It would seem that no other animal would hunt such huge squid. But scientists say that the lives of these individuals can be threatened by sperm whales; there are cases when they were hunted by sharks and pilot whales. The young offspring of a huge others don’t mind eating mollusks big fish, but it’s still small. When the offspring grows up, they become very large sizes and instills fear in everyone around him.

Anyone who sees such an animal will be shocked by its size. The length of the largest squid is sixteen and a half meters, this was recorded by scientists. From this we can conclude that the huge squid is one of the largest representatives of invertebrates.

It is worth noting that the mantle of females is much larger than that of males. If we take an average, the length of the mantle reaches almost three meters.

Features of anatomy, how many tentacles does a squid have?

The study of such huge animals is very interesting, but at the same time life-threatening. We must not forget that this large animal has:

mantle;
eight tentacles:
two tentacles that are designed to catch prey.

Architeuthis mollusks have the largest tentacles of any cephalopod. The tentacles of this animal make up most of its length.

This is a huge animal may be larger than a sperm whale in size. But it should be taken into account that the sperm whale has a large mass, and the squid is light in weight, thanks to its tentacles. But despite this, there are individuals that weigh several hundred kilograms.

Squid is the largest resident among mollusks in the seas and oceans. On all the tentacles that the squid has, you can see a lot of suckers, which have the shape of a hemisphere. They can have different diameters: from two to six centimeters. With these suction cups the animal captures and holds prey. Very often, large round scars can be seen on the head of a sperm whale, which remain after an attack by a huge mollusk.

Tentacles of the greater Architeuthis are divided into three sections, which have the following names:

brushes;
wrist;
fingers.

The suction cups are placed very tightly on the wrist, there are more than six rows of them. The brushes are located almost at the end of the tentacles. They are much wider than the wrists. There are two rows of suckers on the hand, but they are large.

The beak of the mollusk is in the center of the circle with tentacles. It is very similar to the beak of a parrot.

Also, the squid has fins on its body. Thanks to them, a large animal moves, although they are small. They are located behind the mantle. Like all cephalopods, the squid can move in a reactive manner. This method involves drawing water into the mantle and then releasing it through a siphon. In this way the squid can, move very quickly.

For breathing, gills are used, which are located in the mantle.

The nervous system of Architeuthis is highly organized, and the most complex thing in its body is the brain. It is this area of the body that researchers study very carefully.

Noticeable distinctive feature The huge mollusk is considered to have large eyes. They are approximately twenty-seven centimeters, and the pupil is nine. No other animal has such huge eyes. Thanks to such eyes, the squid sees the smallest glow of organisms that are under water. One more interesting fact there is that this marine animal recognizes the color gray.

People do not eat the meat of large squid because it has ammonium chloride in its body, which is why squid have zero buoyancy.

These marine inhabitants navigate very well under water, for this they have special organs called statocysts. These organs contain statoliths, which are used to determine the age of the squid. Statolites played a big role into the study of squid, as they are of great value to scientists. Material for research, researchers often extract from the belly of sperm whales that are lucky enough to swallow huge squid. In the belly of sperm whales, the beaks of Architeuthis are not digested, thanks to this, scientists have received a lot of useful information.

Dimensions of Architeuthis

As mentioned above, squid is the largest mollusk among the inhabitants of the seas and oceans, which still exists in our time. And once upon a time, many hundreds of years ago, there were mollusks that were much larger in size, but they did not survive to our time.

People who saw such a monster often exaggerated its size, often out of fear. Today there is a lot of information that there are individuals that have a length of up to twenty meters or more, but there is no evidence of this.

Scientists have already studied more than one hundred and thirty species of squid. The results that were obtained and existing photos, make it possible to conclude that Architeuthis is the largest squid of all existing ones. According to the latest research, you can see that the longest squid mantle is 22.25 meters, the longest heavy weight- 275 kilograms.

Features of reproduction

Very little is known about the reproduction of huge animals. There are speculations that the squid that reached three years become sexually mature. It is also known that females lay eggs whose length ranges from 0.5 millimeters to 1.4 millimeters, and their width from 0.3 to 0.7 millimeters. How these eggs are fertilized, unknown. But there are guesses that when mating occurs, the male squid moves the reproductive organ out of the mantle and throws out spermatophores.

Very significant research has been carried out on the shores of New Zealand to study young squid, but important information failed to obtain. After this, it was decided to study the large mollusk in special aquariums; this should provide a lot of new and useful information.

Since ancient times, myths have circulated among people about giant monsters from the abyss, thirsting for the blood and flesh of sailor travelers. The uncharted depths of the ocean, which could not be conquered then, were the object and main reason inventions, fairy tales and terrible fables concerning its mysterious inhabitants. It is worth saying that even today no one can say for sure that the planet’s water space, the so-called abyss, has been fully studied. Ancient records tell of how monsters with huge tentacles from depths of the sea attacked ships and galleys, taking them with them into the abyss. Those who managed to stay alive after the attack very often embellished their stories about unprecedented creatures, attributing fictitious abilities to the monsters and distorting them appearance. Due to all the above-mentioned factors, it was almost impossible to determine who exactly the wanderers met with.

Today the situation has changed somewhat, and some unusual inhabitants the seas and oceans have become known to mankind. In the article we would like to talk about the largest squid in the world, namely, talk about their distinctive features, characteristic features species and provide interesting and reliable facts about huge sea monsters.

Habitat of huge mollusks

It is known for certain that there are giant squids on earth that live in the depths of the waters of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Also, these cephalopods can live in seas, both warm and cold. People have more than once managed to catch individuals that could be called the largest squid in the world. Sometimes it even happened that the giant was cut down by the ship's propellers when he tried to attack. However, when such events took place for the first time, humanity did not have the necessary equipment to study the characteristics of the captured animal. Modern technologies allow us to thoroughly examine these living creatures and provide full information about them.

Giant Architeuthis and the first mention of it

One of the largest inhabitants of the ocean depths is considered to be the giant squid, or Architeuthis, as it is called in scientific books. Individuals of this species prefer to be in temperate and subtropical latitudes of all 4 oceans. Giant squids live at a depth of several kilometers and only sometimes swim to the surface. The first mention of architeuthis occurs at the end of the 19th century. During another sea voyage in 1887, which took place near the coast of New Zealand, sailors discovered a strange and frightening creature. It was not difficult to notice, because the storm waves simply washed the huge mollusk onto land. According to the data that the expedition was able to obtain on the spot, the size of the unusual find was amazing. The length of the monster's body reached incredible dimensions - 17.5 meters, and 5 of them were only tentacles. The mantle of an adult individual was also by no means small - about 2 meters. Sorry, install exact weight the sea monster was not successful at that time, but judging by the given parameters, it was quite large.

A successful attempt to explore a huge inhabitant of the depths

The next specimen, called one of the largest squids in the world, was discovered in Antarctica 120 years after the first mention of the sea monster. In 2007, fishermen caught a deep-sea inhabitant whose body reached 9 meters in length. Then the weight of the find was easily established, because fishing tankers currently have everything necessary equipment to weigh the catch directly on board. Giant squid surprised the crew with its dimensions, since its mass was just over 500 kilograms.

The terrifying Mesonychoteuthis

It is now known for certain that Architeuthis is far from the only species of inhabitants of the depths that frighten humanity with its size. Since time immemorial, there has been another representative on earth giant monsters kind cephalopods- mesonychoteuthis. This giant squid monster is considered one of the largest in modern times. It can be called a close relative of Architeuthis, only it is much more majestic. Mesonychoteuthis is the only representative of its genus, because, unlike Architeuthis, its weight is somewhat larger: the mantle of adult individuals alone reaches a mind-boggling size - its length is equal to four meters. By the way, another name for a giant is colossal.

The contents of the sperm whale's stomach, which revealed new facts to science

The first records of Mesonychoteuthys were made in the early 19th century. British zoologist Robson examined tentacles obtained from the stomach of a sperm whale caught on southern islands Scotland, and came to the conclusion that they could only belong to the above sea giant. Subsequently, for many years, no information regarding cephalopod monster squids was reported.

Great luck for scientists

A significant period of time after Robson’s study of the tentacles of the sea monster, scientists discovered 4 eggs in the far Atlantic, presumably left by mollusks. Having studied their composition and origin, they came to the conclusion that the eggs actually belong to a female squid rare species mesonychoteuthys. Scientific data appeared in 1970, that is, almost 50 years after Robson’s first experiment. The characteristics and features of the preserved masonry were carefully studied by experienced specialists of the time. And 9 years after research work managed to catch an adult specimen of Mesonychoteuthis. Her mantle measured 117 cm in length, and she was the largest female squid in the world.

Bloodthirsty and terrible kraken: fiction or reality?

There are legends about giant squids, whose history goes back to the distant past. Ancient sailors told tales about sea monsters that attacked ships, engulfed them with their tentacles and carried away all living things to the seabed. These mythical creatures at that time were nicknamed krakens. Until the end of the 16th century they were considered fictitious. However, after a while, humanity was convinced of the opposite, because the kraken washed up on the shores of Western Ireland was first found and subsequently presented as an exhibit in the Dublin Museum. By the way, the kraken is the largest squid in the world that science knows today.

Distinctive features of the kraken

From others ocean inhabitants The giant mollusk is distinguished by its cylindrical head, on which is located something resembling a bird's beak. It is with this that he captures and grinds prey. The eyes of the kraken are considered the largest in comparison with the organs of vision of all other animals living on planet Earth. Their diameter is 25 cm. The color of the creature changes depending on its mood: from dark green to blood red. The largest squid in the world and its peculiarity in the form of a spike-shaped tongue, with which the mollusk pushes prey into the stomach, instills fear even in experienced sailors.

Giants attack people

It is worth noting that the captain of the Norwegian fishing tanker Arne Grönningseter recently told the public amazing story, which touched a huge kraken. According to him, giants pose an incredible danger to people who devote their lives to fishing, or simply those who like to be at sea. The fact is that his ship Brunswick was attacked several times by the aforementioned monster. The captain spoke about the tactics that the mollusk chooses to attack: it first floats to the surface of the water from the abyss, then accompanies the ship for a short time, as if waiting for a certain moment, and then with lightning speed it emerges from the water and pounces on the ship. Only due to the fact that the tentacles of the cephalopod monster could not catch on the surface of the deck and the hull of the ship, the crew managed to escape and remain unharmed in the unequal battle.

Fixed values

If we talk about specific figures that relate to the dimensions of the huge underwater inhabitants, and answer the question about the size of the largest squids in the world (their body length), then it is worth disappointing seekers of such information. To this day, science has not established any specific values. Experts only suggest that the body length of cephalopods that live in the waters of the World Ocean and prefer its very bottom can exceed 50 meters.

Interesting facts about giant squids

There are several fascinating and real facts about the life of the huge and frightening inhabitants of the depths. We will list only the most interesting of them:

Currently, a mammal is known that can attack one of the largest squids in the world (its name is Architeuthis) - the sperm whale. In the old days and to this day, real fights took place between opponents, in which, as a rule, the sperm whale won. It was thanks to the contents of the mammal’s stomach that science was able to establish the very fact of the existence of a deep-sea giant.
The first photos of an adult giant squid were taken in Japan. An overgrown mollusk was found on the surface of ocean waters and pulled ashore. It was not possible to keep the exclusive inhabitant of marine fauna alive. The squid died within 24 hours of being removed from the water. Today, the remains of this creature are kept in the Japanese Museum of Nature and Science.
The “buoyancy” of the largest squid in the world, the size of which is truly amazing, is due to the content of an aluminum chloride solution in their body, which has a lower density than sea water. Because of this property that distinguishes it from others sea creatures Having an air bubble, the deep-sea giant squid is unsuitable for human food.
The age of squids is determined by their beak.
Unlike others deep sea inhabitants, brain and nervous system squids are unusually developed and still remain a mystery and a subject of research for scientists and specialists in this field.
Despite their impressive size, giant squids can remain invisible to their prey. This is evidenced by the imprints of suckers on the bodies of whales exposed to attacks by these monsters. Scientists have proven that architeuthis, mesonychoteuthys and krakens lead a passive lifestyle. However, when hunting prey, they show activity and resourcefulness.
In anticipation of danger colossal squid releases a protective liquid that is lethal to humans and other sea creatures.
One suction cup, which is located directly on the tentacles of the giant squid, will hold about 20 liters of water.

Results

In conclusion, I would like to say that it doesn’t matter at all what the world’s largest squid looks like. The stories that sailors told about giant krakens, go back into the distant past. Only facts remain - irrefutable, reliable. But here’s the paradox: some of them still remain a mystery to zoologists. Today, everyone knows only that giant squids are not a fiction, but a reality that is covered in a veil of mystery.

Doctor biological sciences K. NESIS (Institute of Oceanology Russian Academy sciences).

A squid with a body length of about two meters, washed ashore in New Zealand in 1984.

The world map shows where giant squids were found.

The beak of the giant squid reaches a length of 15 cm.

Giant squid attacks fishermen. Illustration for N. Duncan's story "The Adventures of the Giant Squid" (1940).

What kind of monsters do newspapers and magazines tell us about, what kind of terrifying beasts does the cinema show us! They have one thing in common - no one has ever been able to put them on a laboratory table, measure, weigh, study their structure and exhibit them in a museum. The only exception- giant squid. Back in 1856, almost a century and a half ago, the famous Danish naturalist Japetus Steenstrup studied the huge beak of a squid washed up on the Danish coast in 1853, compared it with parts of the body of a squid, which was picked up north of the Bahamas in 1855, and dealt with ancient records about other giant monsters washed up on the shores of Denmark (1545) and Iceland (1639, 1790), and described the mysterious sea monster as a real animal, a giant squid, giving it the name Architeuthis dux (translated as super-squid prince).

Since then, many have written about the giant squid - from Alexandre Dumas and Jules Verne to Igor Akimushkin. Even James Bond had to escape from the monster's tentacles (in Ian Fleming's story "Dr. No", one of the first Bond films). The 1991 book “The Beast” by Peter Benchley, the author of the famous “Jaws,” became a bestseller. A film was made based on it, shown on screens all over the world. The public's interest continues. It actually comes in waves, fueled either by newspaper reports, or by a new book or film. Recently the video film “Sea Monsters. The Search for the Giant Squid” was released (an hour-long videotape of the National Geographical Society USA) and an interesting popular science book by Richard Ellis with almost the same title - “The Search for the Giant Squid” (New York, 1998). The book is interesting, Ellis sent it to me, thanks to him (the illustrations for the article are partially taken from this book). The author is an artist by profession, but last years writes popular books about the sea - about whales, dolphins, the great white shark, life in the depths of the ocean and, of course, about sea monsters. So the giant squid is right up his alley. I dug through a huge amount of literature! By the way, Ellis, as an artist and connoisseur of giant squids, participated in the creation of - well, what should you call it, not a stuffed one? - say, a model of a giant squid for the Scottish National Museum in Edinburgh and painted it with my own hands.

But what is most surprising: until now, giant squids fall into the hands of scientists only dead or dying. Thrown onto sea shores, extracted from the stomachs of sperm whales, or caught dead in a trawl. Scientists went to great lengths to, if not catch Architeitis alive, then at least photograph it in its native element: they used both automatic and manned deep-sea vehicles, and even television cameras suspended from living sperm whales. The money spent is an abyss, and the result is zero. And in the video there is no living architeitis, only computer models.

I will talk about the giant squid not as a monster, but as a more or less ordinary (or unusual - depending on how you look at it) inhabitant of the World Ocean.

So who is he? The giant squid Architeuthis is a genus of oceanic squid that makes up the independent family Architeuthidae. The world's largest mollusk.

What does he look like? Squid is like squid, only the body is flabby. The tissues are watery, the muscles are weak. The body (in cephalopods it is called the mantle) is narrow, cylindrical in front and conical in back, elongated into a short tail. The fins are small, semi-oval, sit on the body at the point where it meets the tail and do not reach the end of the body a little. The arms (there are eight of them, as befits a squid) are long, weak, the dorsal ones are shorter, and the ventral ones are the longest, which is convenient for an animal that lives near the bottom and catches prey by touch. There are two rows of suction cups on the hands. Plus two tentacles, the longest - 3-5 times longer than the body, with a thin elastic stem and a long, slightly expanded trapping part (club) at the end. The club has four rows of suckers, of which the middle two rows (12-14 pairs) are very large, up to 5 cm in diameter, their horny rings are armed along the entire perimeter with 40-50 identical triangular teeth. Typically, squids have teeth on the side of the suction cup farthest from the head that are much longer and sharper than on the closer side - this is better for holding prey trying to escape. Why is it different for giant squids? Just imagine: a squid grabbed a big one and strong fish, stuck sharp and long “claws” into it - but the fish escapes. And the tentacles are long, thin - at uneven times, and they can tear. It’s better not to tempt fate and have suction cups that can be quickly detached from the prey if necessary. You will remain hungry, but whole.

At the base of the club there is a bunch of 50-100 alternating suckers and tubercles-buttons, like on jackets, and a row of the same suckers and buttons stretches along most of the stem. This - special apparatus to connect both tentacles together so that when the squid swims, they do not dangle haphazardly and interfere with movement. In addition, the tentacles, fastened together at the “wrists,” can act like pincers when grasping prey—the grip is much more reliable.

The head is small. The eyes are very large, the size of an average spotlight (up to 38 cm in diameter). The color is uniformly red-brown or purple, including on the inner surface of the mantle - usually in squids the inside of the mantle is not colored. They can change color, but much worse than ordinary squids. They do not have luminescent organs.

What are the sizes of architeitis? If with tentacles, then the record is 17.4 m. A squid of this size was thrown ashore in 1887 in New Zealand. The one found in 1878 on the coast of Newfoundland turned out to be slightly smaller: 16.8 m with tentacles, including 6.1 m for the body with head and 10.7 m for the tentacles. This is from the Guinness Book of Records. But, when citing impressive figures for the length of the giant squid, the authors of popular books and articles usually do not indicate that the vast majority of this length falls on the thin stalks of the tentacles, and their length is determined by the state of the muscles. Depending on whether the squid was caught by trawl or picked up on the shore, thawed after freezing or immediately put into a barrel of formaldehyde, the length of the tentacles may be a meter or two more or less. Therefore, scientists measure squids along the dorsal side of the body (mantle). The mantle has a rigid support (internal skeletal plate), it will not stretch or shrink. So, the length of the mantle can be up to 5 m. Heaviest weight the animal is supposedly up to a ton. Such large individuals have only been recorded in the North Atlantic in late XIX and the beginning of the 20th century. Typically, female giant squid have a body length of one and a half to two and a half meters and weigh 150-250 kg. Males are smaller, a meter and a half, and much thinner: they weigh only 20-30 kg or a little more.

Well, the smallest of the giant squids - a mature male with a body length of only 18 cm - was extracted from the stomach of a swordfish caught in 1978 in the Strait of Florida. Maybe not in size, but in all other respects it was gigantic.

Where do they live? In temperate and subtropical zones all three oceans. Details are visible on the map.

Young and sub-adult giant squids live in the water column open ocean at depths ranging from a few meters to 500-600 m. Adults are found mainly near the bottom at depths of approximately 100 to 1100 m, most often from 200 to approximately 600 m.

How many species of giant squid are there? Oddly enough, no one knows. For decades, from 1857 to 1935, almost every newly discovered giant squid specimen was described as the new kind and even a genus, so that a total of 8 genera and about 20 species were described, and it was completely unclear how they differed from each other. Then, confused in this diversity, scientists generally stopped defining Architeuthis to species and for more than half a century they have all been simply called Architeuthis sp., that is, Architeuthis is unknown what species. Even the most complete and modern reference book on the taxonomy of cephalopods does not say how many species there are in this genus. No other squid family has such ugliness! In my opinion, the giant squid family includes only one genus and species with three subspecies: North Atlantic, North Pacific and Southern.

And the dwarf giant squid from the Straits of Florida is probably an independent species. Unfortunately, no new information about him has appeared over the past 20 years.

Are they found in our seas? The North Atlantic architeitis has not been recorded in Russian waters, but can be found in the west Barents Sea, since it was recorded near Spitsbergen and northern Norway almost to the North Cape. North Pacific giant squids were seen alive in our waters only once - on the surface of the ocean southeast of Shikotan Island; their length with tentacles was estimated at a glance (from the deck) at 10-12 m. In the late 1940s and 1950s, when we killed whales, the characteristic beaks of Architeitis were often found in the stomachs of all sperm whales Kuril Islands, in the Bering Sea, off the Aleutian Islands and in the Gulf of Alaska. However, deep-sea trawls large enough to catch such a squid have never caught them either in the Bering or Okhotsk seas, or on the ocean side of Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands. So we can assume that sperm whales devoured them somewhere in the south. But, most likely, they are found in the Kuril Islands.

Why are they so often found washed ashore? Giant squids breed in subtropical waters and fatten up in temperate and subpolar waters of both hemispheres, and mainly immature females participate in long-distance migrations, while males usually do not stray far from the breeding grounds. Migrations to feed occur mainly passively, with warm currents; migrations back to spawning occur actively, against the current. Subtropical in origin, these squids do not tolerate sudden drops in temperature and, having found themselves in cold waters in pursuit of prey, they lose strength, float to the surface of the ocean and drift until they are thrown ashore dead or half-dead. As a result, architeitis finds on the shores are usually close to those places where warm currents meet with cold ones (“polar fronts”), and precisely on the warm side of the fronts. Therefore, in particular, in the Sea of Japan they are often found near Japan and have never been found off the coast of Primorye.

There is a strange and incomprehensible pattern in the washing of giants onto the shores. In previous years, they were most often found in the North Atlantic, especially in Newfoundland. There they (almost entirely females - males rarely go far to the north) were encountered very often in the 1870s, 1900-1910s, 1930s and 1960s, that is, with breaks of about thirty years. From 1964 to 1971, ten finds were noted in Newfoundland, six more in 1975-1982, and from then until 1996 - none. In the Sea of Japan off the coast of Japan, only from December 1974 to March 1976, 13 architeitis were picked up, and after that they were rarely found. The "leader" in recent years has become New Zealand, where giants were often found in 1870-1880, and then much less often. Now again they come across more often. What is the reason? Probably due to some changes in ocean currents.

How do they reproduce? About the same as all squids. Males mature at small sizes (individuals with a mantle length of 60-70 cm may already be mature). Females mature with a mantle length of one and a half to two meters.

Architeitis eggs are small (2.0-2.5 mm) and very numerous. In the ovary of one far from the largest female, which weighed more than 20 kg, they counted 12 million eggs! No one saw the scooped eggs. They are probably enclosed in voluminous gelatinous egg clutches floating near the bottom. Having swept out the entire supply of eggs, the extremely exhausted female dies and floats to the surface of the ocean. The male, after the only spawning in his life, also dies, but most likely drowns.

A small larva emerges from the egg. So far, only one is known, which was caught at a depth of 20 m off the southeastern coast of Australia; the length of its body was only 1 cm. And the fry of the giant squid fall into the hands of scientists extremely rarely; you can count them on the fingers of one hand. Why this is so - no one knows.

What is their lifestyle like? Architeitis are neutrally buoyant squids (most common squids are heavier than water). They don't sink or float. Neutral buoyancy is ensured by the accumulation in the tissues of a great many small bubbles containing a light, lighter than water, solution of ammonium chloride. Neutral buoyancy is convenient and saves energy. But the bubbles take the place of the muscles, and the tissues become loose and watery. The muscles are only the stems of the tentacles. Therefore, Architeitis are sedentary animals. They do not hunt in pursuit, like wolves, but search for prey or lie in wait for it. But they are able to grab large prey with a sharp throw.

How long do they live? The age of squid, like fish, is determined by the number of daily growth marks ("rings") on auditory pebbles (statoliths) in the inner ear. Such calculations for architeitis gave an unexpected result. It turned out that they live as long as ordinary squid. The age of an immature female with a mantle length of 42 cm, caught off southeastern Australia, was only 5 months, and the age of mature females (161-162 cm), caught from New Zealand and Argentina, and mature males (98-108 cm), caught to the west Ireland - 10-14 months. The fact is that females grow faster. Imagine: from a centimeter-long larva to an animal the size of a man (only in the body, not counting the head and arms!) - and in just a year! Increase your weight by 3-4% per day! So in the first year, female Architeitis may well grow to 160-180 cm, in the second year of life they will mature, spawn and die. Believe it or not, try checking...

Who do they eat and who eats them? Architeitis are solitary, not school animals. They appear to mostly swim slowly along the bottom in a jet-like fashion, tail first, with arms and tentacles extended back, or hang in the water with their limbs down, waiting for prey. What they eat is not very well known. In the old days, they picked up a dead squid on the shore, found algae in its stomach - and said: it feeds on algae. And he grabbed them already in agony. We caught a squid with a trawl - in its stomach there are many fish and all sorts of bottom animals, the same ones as in the trawl. Maybe he already ate them in the trawl. If we summarize and analyze all the published information, it turns out that architeitis feeds on various pelagic (living in the water column) and bottom fish and squid, from small to very large. Once the remains of large, muscular and very fast neon squid were found in the stomach, and these tasty animals hunt in the night upper layers water, and during the day they go deeper and seem to fall asleep. This is probably where architeitis catches them.

They have many enemies only in early youth, larvae or juveniles of all kinds predatory fish not too lazy to eat. Young architeitis are eaten by swordfish, various tuna, sharks, etc. Adult squid have one main enemy - the sperm whale. Most sperm whales, especially males (they dive deeper than females and grab larger prey), have sucker scars on their faces, which indicates the squid's desperate but unsuccessful struggle with predators. After all, if you compare by weight, then the sperm whale and the squid are like a man and a cat, the outcome of the fight will not raise any doubts. So all stories about the struggle between two giants, a squid and a sperm whale, end the same way: the sperm whale eats the squid. By the way, the sperm whale feeds mainly on schooling squids, and solitary architeitis in its diet occupy, if we count in quantity, an insignificant place, a fraction of a percent. But in terms of weight - more than significant! Eats Architeitis and sea Elephant. This is also a giant and deep-diving predator.

Who else? You'll never guess - an albatross! The bird, although huge, weighs tens of times less than Architeitis and, moreover, does not know how to dive at all. Still he eats. And although, like the sperm whale, in terms of quantity, architeitis occupy a completely insignificant share in the food of albatrosses, but in terms of weight, especially among wandering albatrosses, sometimes from 10 to 25%. How do birds manage to cope with them? But there’s no need to cope: the albatross is the world’s most perfect soarer, covering hundreds of miles without literally fluttering a wing, and looking out for anything edible on the surface. Birds simply find dying female squids that float to the surface after spawning and peck them. Well, the males, if they actually drown, are eaten at the bottom by all sorts of crustaceans and snails.

Is the giant squid dangerous for humans? This question is often asked, but for some reason they do not ask: where and how can a person and architeitis meet? A person ends up at a depth of hundreds of meters, either protected by the strong metal of the underwater vehicle, or already by a corpse. And architeitis also falls into the human sphere - to the shore and surface - in the form of a corpse or in agony. A sperm whale's dream, these squids are completely inedible for humans. The meat is sour and stinks of ammonia. It’s like boiling cotton wool soaked in a mixture of ammonia and sea water. May countless authors forgive me fantastic stories about sea monsters, but, it seems to me, a squid can harm a person only if a person, having found a dying squid in the sea, which the birds have not yet had time to notice and peck at, tries to drag a carcass weighing a couple of centners into the boat, and is killed overboard. But here the squid cannot be called to blame. Here in 1994 near the island of Tenerife ( Canary Islands) tourists admiring the whales saw Architeitis floating on the surface and caught a half-dead monster weighing 175 kg. It's good that they had a big boat!

So, the search for the giant squid is not over yet. Living giant in natural environment no one has seen the habitat yet. But now it seems to be just a matter of time and money. We know where to look for it, all that’s left is to figure out how to capture it on film in an easier way. Hopefully we'll soon see the Architeti himself on TV news. And there, you see, and before marine aquarium it will come.

AND Whale Watching Associations got the first pictures of live giant squids in their natural environment. The same team took the first video of a live giant squid on December 4, 2006.

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Like all squid, the giant squid has a mantle, 8 arms (regular tentacles), and two trapping tentacles (the largest known tentacles of any cephalopod). The tentacles make up the bulk of the squid's enormous length, which makes it, with almost the same size, a much lighter animal than the sperm whale, the main enemy of the giant squid. Scientifically documented specimens have weighed several hundred kilograms.

The inner side of the tentacles is covered with hundreds of hemispherical suckers with a diameter of 2-6 cm. Along the circumference of each sucker there is a sharp jagged chitinous ring. Suckers are used to capture and hold prey. Round scars from suckers can often be found on the heads of sperm whales that have attacked giant squids. Each tentacle is divided into 3 regions: “wrist”, “hand” and “fingers”. On the wrist, the suction cups are located tightly, in 6-7 rows. The brush is wider and located closer to the end of the tentacle; the suckers on it are larger and arranged less frequently, in 2 rows. The fingers are located at the ends of the tentacles. The bases of the tentacles are arranged in a circle, in the center of which (like other cephalopods) is a beak, similar to the beak of a parrot.
At the back of the mantle are small fins used for locomotion. Like other cephalopods, the giant squid uses a jet mode of movement, drawing water into the mantle cavity and pushing it out through the siphon in leisurely pulsations. If necessary, he can move quite quickly - fill the mantle with water and, with muscle tension, forcefully push it through the siphon. Inside the mantle cavity there is also a pair of large gills used by the squid for breathing. It can release a cloud of dark ink to scare away predators.
The giant squid has a highly organized nervous system and a complex brain, which is of great interest to scientists. In addition, it has the largest eyes of any living organism (along with the Antarctic giant squid) - up to 27 cm in diameter with a 9-centimeter pupil. Big eyes allow the mollusk to detect the weak bioluminescent glow of organisms. It probably does not have the ability to distinguish colors, but can detect small differences in shades of gray, which is more important in extremely low light conditions.
The giant squid and other large species of squid have zero buoyancy in seawater due to the ammonium chloride solution contained in their body, which is lighter than water. Most fish maintain buoyancy in another way, using a swim bladder filled with gas for this purpose. Thanks to this property, giant squid meat is unattractive to humans.
Like all cephalopods, the giant squid has special statocyst organs for orientation in space. The age of the squid can be determined by looking at the "growth rings" on the statoliths inside these organs, using the same method used to determine the age of trees. Most of what is known about the age of giant squid comes from counting such rings and from undigested squid beaks found in the stomachs of sperm whales.

Size

The giant squid is the largest mollusk in body length and one of the largest in body length of all known modern invertebrates (formally longer than the nemertean Lineus longissimus). Some extinct cephalopods could reach even larger sizes. In terms of body mass, it is inferior to the colossal squid.
Data on the full length of discovered representatives of the giant squid have often turned out to be greatly exaggerated. Data on specimens reaching a length of 20 m or more are widespread, but do not have documentary evidence. It is possible that such measurements could actually be obtained by stretching the hunting tentacles, which are highly elastic.
Based on a study of 130 representatives of the species and beaks found in the stomachs of sperm whales, maximum length The mantle of a giant squid is determined to be 2.25 m, and the length with arms (but without hunting tentacles) rarely exceeds 5 m. The maximum total length with relaxed muscles (after death) from the end of the fins to the tips of the hunting tentacles is estimated at 16.5 m. Weight Limit is 275 kg for females and 150 kg for males.

Reproduction

The only animals known to prey on adult giant squid are sperm whales and polar sharks. Perhaps pilot whales also pose a danger to them. Juveniles can serve as prey for small deep-sea sharks and some others large fish. Scientists are trying to use the sperm whale's ability to find giant squids to observe the latter.
The giant squid is found in all oceans of the Earth. It is usually found near the continental slopes of the North Atlantic (Newfoundland, Norway, British Isles), the South Atlantic - near South Africa, in the Pacific Ocean - near Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Representatives of this species are relatively rare in tropical and polar latitudes. The vertical distribution is not well known; data on caught specimens and observations of the behavior of sperm whales suggests a fairly wide range of depths: from approximately 300 to 1000 m.

Kinds

The taxonomy of the giant squid (like many other squid genera) cannot be considered settled. Some researchers identify up to 8 species of the genus Architeuthis
- Architeuthis dux(Atlantic giant squid)
- Architeuthis hartingii
- Architeuthis japonica
- Architeuthis kirkii
- Architeuthis martensi(North Pacific giant squid)
- Architeuthis physeteris
- Architeuthis sanctipauli(Southern giant squid)
- Architeuthis stockii
However, there are no sufficient genetic or physiological prerequisites for identifying such a number of species. The small number of specimens studied, the difficulty of observing and studying giant squids in the wild, and tracking migration routes create serious problems to resolve issues of classification of the giant squid.
Most researchers believe that so far there is reason to talk about only one species (Architeuthis dux), distributed throughout the world's oceans.

History of the study

The first surviving descriptions of the giant squid were made by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (4th century BC) and the Roman historian Pliny the Elder (1st century AD). Aristotle distinguished the 5-cubit-long giant squid (teuthus) from the common squid (teuthis). Pliny the Elder described giant squids in Natural History, with a head "the size of a barrel", with nine-meter tentacles and a weight of 320 kg.
The first images of an adult were taken in Kyoto Prefecture (Japan). A 4m long giant squid (with a 2m long mantle) was discovered near the surface of the water, caught and tied to a dock where it died within 24 hours. The body is now on display at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo.
The first photographs of a living giant squid in its natural environment were obtained on September 30, 2004 by Japanese scientists Tsunami Kuboderoi And Kyouichi Mori. It took them about two years of searching. The images were taken during their third trip to a known sperm whale hunting ground 970 km south of Tokyo, where they lowered a 900-meter cable baited with shrimp and squid into the depths, equipped with a flash camera. After 20 attempts, the eight-meter giant squid attacked the bait and hooked its tentacle onto the hook. In the 4 hours it took him to free himself, the camera took more than 400 pictures. The tentacle remained attached to the bait, and DNA testing showed that it indeed belonged to a giant squid. The resulting images were published a year later, on September 27, 2005.
Among other things, the observations helped to establish the real behavior of the giant squid during hunting, which has been the subject of much speculation. Contrary to assumptions that the giant squid is sedentary, the images demonstrated the aggressive hunting habits of this animal.
In November 2006, American explorer Scott Cassel led an expedition to the Gulf of California, main goal which was to get a video of a giant squid in its natural environment. The team used original method filming: a specially designed camera was attached to the fin of a Humboldt squid. Using this method, it was possible to obtain a video that most likely captured a 12-meter giant squid. A year later, the video was used in a program about giant squids on the History Channel.
On December 4, 2006, a giant squid was captured on video near the Ogasawara Islands (1000 km south of Tokyo) by a team of researchers led by Tsunami Kubodera. It was a small female, 3.5 m long and weighing about 50 kg. The bait used by the scientists first attracted the attention of a smaller species of squid, which in turn was attacked by a giant squid. The female was brought onto the ship, but died during the process.
On December 29, 2015, a 3.7 m long giant squid was discovered and filmed in Toyama Bay, Honshu Island (300 km northwest of Tokyo).

Since ancient times, myths have circulated among people about giant monsters from the abyss, thirsting for the blood and flesh of sailor travelers. The uncharted depths of the ocean, which could not be conquered then, were the object and main reason for inventions, fairy tales and terrible fables concerning its mysterious inhabitants. It is worth saying that even today no one can say for sure that the planet’s water space, the so-called abyss, has been fully studied. Ancient records tell how monsters with huge tentacles from the depths of the sea attacked ships and galleys, carrying them into the abyss. Those who managed to stay alive after the attack very often embellished their stories about unprecedented creatures, attributing fictitious abilities to the monsters and distorting their appearance. Due to all the above-mentioned factors, it was almost impossible to determine who exactly the wanderers met with.

Today the situation has changed somewhat, and mankind has learned a lot about some unusual inhabitants of the seas and oceans. In the article we would like to talk about the largest squid in the world, namely, talk about their distinctive features, the characteristic features of the species and provide interesting and reliable facts about the huge sea monsters.

Habitat of huge mollusks

It is known for certain that there are giant squids on earth that live in the depths of the waters of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. Also, these cephalopods can live in seas, both warm and cold. People have more than once managed to catch individuals that could be called the largest squid in the world. Sometimes it even happened that the giant was cut down by the ship's propellers when he tried to attack. However, when such events took place for the first time, humanity did not have the necessary equipment to study the characteristics of the captured animal. Modern technologies make it possible to thoroughly examine these living creatures and provide complete information about them.

Giant Architeuthis and the first mention of it

One of the largest inhabitants of the ocean depths is considered to be the giant squid, or Architeuthis, as it is called in scientific books. Individuals of this species prefer to be in temperate and subtropical latitudes of all 4 oceans. Giant squids live at a depth of several kilometers and only sometimes swim to the surface. The first mention of architeuthis occurs at the end of the 19th century. During another sea voyage in 1887, which took place near the coast of New Zealand, sailors discovered a strange and frightening creature. It was not difficult to notice, because the storm waves simply washed the huge mollusk onto land. According to the data that the expedition was able to obtain on the spot, the size of the unusual find was amazing. The length of the monster's body reached incredible dimensions - 17.5 meters, and 5 of them were only tentacles. The mantle of an adult individual was also by no means small - about 2 meters. Unfortunately, it was not possible to determine the exact weight of the sea monster at that time, but judging by the given parameters, it was quite large.

A successful attempt to explore a huge inhabitant of the depths

The next specimen, called one of the largest squids in the world, was discovered in Antarctica 120 years after the first mention of the sea monster. In 2007, fishermen caught a deep-sea inhabitant whose body reached 9 meters in length. Then the weight of the find was easy to establish, because fishing tankers currently have all the necessary equipment for weighing the catch directly on board. The giant squid surprised the crew with its size, as its mass was just over 500 kilograms.

The terrifying Mesonychoteuthis

It is now known for certain that Architeuthis is far from the only species of inhabitants of the depths that frighten humanity with its size. Since time immemorial, there has been another representative of giant monsters of the cephalopod species on earth - mesonychoteuthis. This giant squid monster is considered one of the largest in modern times. It can be called a close relative of Architeuthis, only it is much more majestic. Mesonychoteuthis is the only representative of its genus, because, unlike Architeuthis, its weight is somewhat larger: the mantle of adult individuals alone reaches a mind-boggling size - its length is equal to four meters. By the way, another name for a giant is colossal.

The contents of the sperm whale's stomach, which revealed new facts to science

The first records of Mesonychoteuthys were made in the early 19th century. British zoologist Robson examined tentacles taken from the stomach of a sperm whale caught on the southern islands of Scotland and came to the conclusion that they could only belong to the aforementioned sea giant. Subsequently, for many years, no information regarding cephalopod monster squids was reported.

Great luck for scientists

A significant period of time after Robson’s study of the tentacles of the sea monster, scientists discovered 4 eggs in the far Atlantic, presumably left by mollusks. Having studied their composition and origin, they came to the conclusion that the eggs actually belonged to a female squid of a rare species, mesonychoteuthis. Scientific data appeared in 1970, that is, almost 50 years after Robson’s first experiment. The characteristics and features of the preserved masonry were carefully studied by experienced specialists of the time. And 9 years after the research work, we managed to catch an adult specimen of mesonychoteuthis. Her mantle measured 117 cm in length, and she was the largest female squid in the world.

Bloodthirsty and terrible kraken: fiction or reality?

There are legends about giant squids, whose history goes back to the distant past. Ancient sailors told tales about sea monsters that attacked ships, engulfed them with their tentacles and carried away all living things to the seabed. These mythical creatures at that time were nicknamed krakens. Until the end of the 16th century they were considered fictitious. However, after a while, humanity was convinced of the opposite, because the kraken washed up on the shores of Western Ireland was first found and subsequently presented as an exhibit in the Dublin Museum. By the way, the kraken is the largest squid in the world that science knows today.

Distinctive features of the kraken

The giant mollusk differs from other ocean inhabitants by its head, which has a cylindrical shape, on which is located something resembling a bird’s beak. It is with this that he captures and grinds prey. The eyes of the kraken are considered the largest in comparison with the organs of vision of all other animals living on planet Earth. Their diameter is 25 cm. The color of the creature changes depending on its mood: from dark green to blood red. The largest squid in the world and its peculiarity in the form of a spike-shaped tongue, with which the mollusk pushes prey into the stomach, instills fear even in experienced sailors.

Giants attack people

It is worth noting that the captain of a Norwegian fishing tanker, Arne Grönningseter, recently told the public an amazing story about a huge kraken. According to him, giants pose an incredible danger to people who devote their lives to fishing, or simply those who like to be at sea. The fact is that his ship Brunswick was attacked several times by the aforementioned monster. The captain spoke about the tactics that the mollusk chooses to attack: it first floats to the surface of the water from the abyss, then accompanies the ship for a short time, as if waiting for a certain moment, and then with lightning speed it emerges from the water and pounces on the ship. Only due to the fact that the tentacles of the cephalopod monster could not catch on the surface of the deck and the hull of the ship, the crew managed to escape and remain unharmed in the unequal battle.

Fixed values

If we talk about specific figures that relate to the dimensions of huge underwater inhabitants, and answer the question about the size of the largest squid in the world (their body length), then we should disappoint seekers of such information. To this day, science has not established any specific values. Experts only suggest that the body length of cephalopods that live in the waters of the World Ocean and prefer its very bottom can exceed 50 meters.

Interesting facts about giant squids

There are several fascinating and real facts about the life of the huge and frightening inhabitants of the depths. We will list only the most interesting of them:
1. Currently, a mammal is known that can attack one of the largest squids in the world (its name is Architeuthis) - the sperm whale. In the old days and to this day, real fights took place between opponents, in which, as a rule, the sperm whale won. It was thanks to the contents of the mammal’s stomach that science was able to establish the very fact of the existence of a deep-sea giant.
2. The first photos of an adult giant squid were taken in Japan. An overgrown mollusk was found on the surface of ocean waters and pulled ashore. It was not possible to keep the exclusive inhabitant of marine fauna alive. The squid died within 24 hours of being removed from the water. Today, the remains of this creature are kept in the Japanese Museum of Nature and Science.
3. The “buoyancy” of the largest squid in the world, the size of which is truly amazing, is due to the content of an aluminum chloride solution in their body, which has a lower density than sea water. Because of this property, which distinguishes it from other marine life that has an air bubble, the deep-sea giant squid is unsuitable for human food.
4. The age of squids is determined by their beak.
5. Unlike other deep-sea inhabitants, the brain and nervous system of squids are unusually developed and still remain a mystery and a subject of research for scientists and specialists in this field.
6. Despite their impressive size, giant squids can remain invisible to their prey. This is evidenced by the imprints of suckers on the bodies of whales exposed to attacks by these monsters. Scientists have proven that architeuthis, mesonychoteuthys and krakens lead a passive lifestyle. However, when hunting prey, they show activity and resourcefulness.
7. In anticipation of danger, the colossal squid releases a protective fluid that is fatal to humans and other sea creatures.
8. One suction cup, which is located directly on the tentacles of the giant squid, will hold about 20 liters of water.
Results

In conclusion, I would like to say that it doesn’t matter at all what the world’s largest squid looks like. The stories that sailors told about giant krakens go back to the distant past. Only facts remain - irrefutable, reliable. But here’s the paradox: some of them still remain a mystery to zoologists. Today, everyone knows only that giant squids are not a fiction, but a reality that is covered in a veil of mystery.