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The baffling prodigious squid has finally been catch on camera , an intact century after it was first discovered .
A team of scientist aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute ’s inquiry vessel Falkor film a not - so - colossal juvenile measuring 11.8 inches ( 30 centimeters ) long as it swam through the sea near the South Sandwich Islands at a deepness of around 1,968 feet ( 600 meters ) .
The juvenile colossal squid was filmed near the South Sandwich Islands.
The video , which was captured on March 9 in the South Atlantic Ocean by a remotely operated fomite ( ROV ) named SuBastian , render the semitransparent baby squid lightly swimming through the abyss of the deep sea , with its tiny tentacle dangle behind it .
" It ’s exciting to see the first in situ footage of a adolescent colossal and humbling to think that they have no idea that humanity exist,“Kat Bolstad , a squid researcher at the the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand , who was an main scientific expert consulted to affirm the footage , said in a assertion . “For 100 years , we have mainly encountered them as prey stay in hulk and seabird stomachs and as predators of harvested toothfish . "
prodigious squid ( Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni ) are bigger than even thefamous behemoth squid(Architeuthis dux ) . They are consideredthe largest invertebrateson the planet , measuring up to46 feet(14 m ) long — as longas a semitrailer — and weighing as much as 1,100 Ezra Loomis Pound ( 500 kilograms ) . They have thelargest eyesof any known animal , which can measure up to11 in ( 27 cm ) across — about the size of a association football ball .
The squid was just under 12 inches in length. Adults can grow up to 46 feet.
These bizarre creatures live deep beneath the south-polar waters of the Southern Ocean . They livedeeper and deeperwith age , with the youngest and smallest squid being find down to about 1,640 feet ( 500 m ) , adolescents living between 1,600 and 6,600 infantry ( 500 to 2,000 m ) , and amply grow adults living even deeper .
This year marks 100 years since the colossal squid was formally identify and nominate , but in the hundred since , very few have ever been run across . The species was first discovered after two of its arms were base in the stomach of a sperm whaleduring the wintertime of 1924 - 1925 .
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The new video is the first - ever live observance of this species in its natural habitat . Dying grownup colossal squid have been filmed by fishermen , and the first complete specimen was capture in2007 by a fishing vesselnear Antarctica . Most of what we recognize about this species and its modus vivendi comes frombeaks found in sperm cell heavyweight stomachs . Only 12 complete colossal squid specimens had ever beenfound as of 2015,and about one-half of those were juvenile .
The scientist on the previous Falkor junket in January also filmed the first - ever confirmed footage of the frozen chalk calamari ( Galiteuthis glacialis ) , which had also never been observed in its natural habitat before now .
" The first sighting of two dissimilar squids on back - to - back expeditions is singular and evince how little we have seen of the splendid inhabitants of the Southern Ocean,“Jyotika Virmani , Schmidt Ocean Institute ’s executive director , said in the statement . " These unforgettable moment persist in to cue us that the ocean is brim with mysteries yet to be solved . "
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