60' Squid Washes up on Tasmanian Beach 93
Astrobirdr writes "CNN has a
story about a giant squid that recently washed up on a Tasmanian beach. Some think it might be a
new species." 60 feet long is enough for a lot of calimari.
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60' Squid Washes up on Tasmanian Beach
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We are each entitled to our own opinion, but no one is entitled to his own facts. -- Patrick Moynihan
Re:Offtopic? (Score:1)
Re:Cthulhu (Score:2)
huh? (Score:1)
60 feet long is enough for a lot of calimari.
Yes, and studying too little in English class is not enough for a lot of studying.
Re:huh? (Score:2)
"Mr Pemberton said its high ammonia content would have made it unpleasant to eat, tasting a bit like floor cleaner."
Timothy, you can have my helping.
Re:huh? (Score:1)
Mr Pemberton..don't eat floor cleaner. It is wrong.
And to fine tune your analogy (Score:1)
>
> Yes, and studying too little in English class is not enough for a lot of studying.
Yes, and studying too little in English class is not enough for a lot of studing.
Re:And to fine tune your analogy (Score:2)
>>
> > Yes, and studying too little in English class is not enough for a lot of studying.
>
> Yes, and studying too little in English class is not enough for a lot of studing.
Fair enough, but how's studying in English class gonna help the guy improve his Itilian, which is the real problem here.
Re:And to fine tune your analogy (Score:1)
babel.altavista.com [altavista.com]
-nerd solutions-
Re:huh? (Score:1)
(And yes, I know "Calamari" is Italian for "squid". Just go with it.)
Re:huh? (Score:1)
Sadly we can't catch a live one. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Sadly we can't catch a live one. (Score:2)
Re:News for nerds? (Score:2)
*runs*
Re:News for nerds? (Score:1)
Re:News for nerds? (Score:1)
(And btw I've submitted plenty of stories.)
Re:News for nerds? (Score:1)
"Excuse me, how is this 'news for nerds'?"
*sniff*
I thought it was perfect.
Did anyone else read this as: (Score:2, Funny)
Steel Cables? (Score:2, Insightful)
The giant squid is a carnivorous mollusk with a beak-like mouth strong enough to cut through a steel cable and its eyes are the largest in the animal kingdom -- growing up to 45 centimeters (18 inches) wide.
I'm not a marine biologist, but what do you suppose giant squid need to bite through that is "as strong as a steel cable?" Unless they prey on submarines, I can't imagine any sea critter that has a shell that tough!
Re:Steel Cables? (Score:1)
Re:Steel Cables? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Steel Cables? (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, any good design has some margin of safety. You wouldn't want the squid to only barely be able to bite through its food, or its beak wouldn't last long. That said, I imagine you need a good deal of force to break open something like a chambered nautilus (the shellfish, not the submarine).
Editors note (Score:5, Funny)
"It's definitely of the giant squid group, which is exciting enough," the museum's senior curator of Zoology, David Pemberton said in the ABC report.
Editors Note: David Pemberton is an associate professor at the Royal Academy of Really Obvious Facts. His new book Kitty Cats Go Meow is due out in the fall.
Re:Editors note (Score:3, Informative)
This is not stupid. The giant squids (Architeuthidae) are a genus of squid within the 10-armed cephalopods. This means that all the species of this group are each others closest relatives.
Pemberton probably means that this specimen is of an undescribed species of this group. 'Giant squid' is not a physical, but a taxonomical description.
Relax, Iron Chef... (Score:1)
[nasa.gov]
This link tells - among other things - about some dude that tried to cook a part of a giant squid.
Ammonium Chloride (Score:2)
Doubly interesting! (Score:1)
Squid DO NOT eat whales, whales eat squid (Score:3, Informative)
Jeez.
'j
Re:Squid DO NOT eat whales, whales eat squid (Score:1)
The answer is pack instinct and teeth. So perhaps the squids hunt in packs (which wouldn't be imposible), or perhaps they just attack weaker smaller, and possibly sickly whales.
Re:Squid DO NOT eat whales, whales eat squid (Score:1, Funny)
But extremely fucking cool.
Re:Squid DO NOT eat whales, whales eat squid (Score:2)
But extremely fucking cool.
I smell a Bad Horror Movie...
Twelve Tentacled Freaks! Cephalopodaphobia! Deep Blue Sea II: Revenge of the Calimari! And of course, Call of Cthulthu.
Re:Squid DO NOT eat whales, whales eat squid (Score:2)
Would that be a Beosquid cluster?
Re:Squid DO NOT eat whales, whales eat squid (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Squid DO NOT eat whales, whales eat squid (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Squid DO NOT eat whales, whales eat squid (Score:1)
Re:Squid DO NOT eat whales, whales eat squid (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Squid DO NOT eat whales, whales eat squid (Score:2)
Hey, someone had to bring it up. Boy, do I date myself by saying I had a structured software design textbook.
Re: Squid DO NOT eat whales, whales eat squid (Score:1)
> Hey, someone had to bring it up. Boy, do I date myself by saying I had a structured software design textbook. :-)
I always lie and say I read it on the bathroom wall.
Re:Squid DO NOT eat whales, whales eat squid (Score:1)
I'm not sure that the idea that they prey on the whales is valid. It could just as easily be territorialism or sheer stupidity.
The whales, however, are not likely to be doing the preying on something that big though. Most whales are filter feeders...and basically toothless. There's no way they could do anything with something that large. Frankly if there's any predatory relationship between the two, the squid doing the preying makes more sense to me.
Re:Squid DO NOT eat whales, whales eat squid (Score:3, Informative)
'jfb
Re:Squid DO NOT eat whales, whales eat squid (Score:1)
Sperm whales have had giant squid in their stomachs, but eyewitness reports prove that the whale does not always get to eat the squid. Sometimes, it is the other way around.
Tadadadadada...
...sperm whales (Score:1)
Why don't we see live giant squids?
- The live where it's really deep...?
Why do sperm whales dive to more than 3000 meters depth?
- Uhhh..mmmm.....To get eaten by giant squids..?..as a macho thingie?
-----
Sperm whales with suckmark scars up to 1 m diameter have been found...
The marks might come from when the whales where young and have thereafter grown with the skin....or...
There is something down there.......BIG!
-----
Umbra (alt. ambra)(used in perfumes and stuff) from the sperm whales's stomach is half-digested chitin-otherstuff thingie that acts as a "spline" in the squids.
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What i remember squids have different hemoglobin than humans...They have copper instead of iron as co-factor...
Re:...sperm whales (Score:1)
So Great Cthulhu's a Vulcan? Someone tell Paramount Pictures! We've got a great set up: "Star Trek XVIII: Call of Shatner's Toupee".
Re:Squid DO NOT eat whales, whales eat squid (Score:1)
It could get stuck in the whale's blowhole (or throat)!
Re:Squid DO NOT eat whales, whales eat squid (Score:2)
If a whale has a sucker scar, it's from a desparate squid trying to escape, not from a brush with death. Look at the sizes of the things: how would a 250kg squid handle a 60 ton whale?
I don't know what the facts are, but it's not unbelievable. A tiny poisonous spider can take down a pretty large animal in the right circumstances.
I doubt the squid is going to take down the whale by beating on it with its tentacles, but it may have other weapons at its disposal. :)
Re:Squid DO NOT eat whales, whales eat squid (Score:2)
Only after it's been eaten though. Oh wait, did you mean venomous?
Perhaps it is a ... giant squid! (Score:2)
< stuff deleted >
"It's definitely of the giant squid group, which is exciting enough," the museum's senior curator of Zoology, David Pemberton said in the ABC report.
There is a reason why this guy is the senior curator and not just some silly junior curator mopping up the lab after hours.
I thought CNN was bad but this article is pretty skimpy. By the way, at the end of the article the y seem to hint that giant squid feed on whales when it is the opposite. Whales feed on squid. The problem is that the squid fight back, but there is absolutely no evidence that the squid feed on whales.
PETA press release to follow no doubt (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:PETA press release to follow no doubt (Score:2)
Anyway, it's our right to do what we want.
awe inspiring (Score:2, Interesting)
We talk of finding life on other planets, which orbit around other stars. And we talk about environmental issues and geological events with such certainty, such God-given insight. Or is it indeed God-given? Have we not perhaps eaten instead of the Fruit of Knowledge? Did we doom ourselves long ago to the curse of insight? It is not for me to say, nor for any man. But we have no choice: we, as a species, are driven to seek information, knowledge, science.
And as we do so, we will continue to find wonders that make us catch or breaths. Even in this modern world, beasts crawl the frightening depths, luring the simple-minded translucent fish to their jaws. What else lies beneath those waves? What else hides in the dark rain forests of South America, or in the frozen tundra of Canada? It's an amazing world out there, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
It boggles my brains.
Gees, Buddy: A little overly dramatic, aren't we? (Score:2)
Let me guess: you work as either a narrator or a writer for nature documentaries.
Ah well. I'm glad you found such profound intellectual delight in the discovery of this squid....
GMD
Re:awe inspiring (Score:1)
Illegal use of purple prose. Fifteen yards. Repeat first down.
Re:awe inspiring (Score:1)
Some think it might be a new species NOT (Score:2)
Re:Some think it might be a new species NOT (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Some think it might be a new species NOT (Score:2)
Search for the giant squid ends... (Score:1)
In other news... (Score:3, Funny)
calimari (Score:1, Informative)
Like /. users? (Score:3, Funny)
s/squid/slashdotter/
Poor squid.. (Score:2)
Iron Chef (Score:1)
I only have one thing to say... (Score:1)
10 times bigger (Score:2, Funny)
Almost forgetting for the moment all thoughts of Moby Dick, we now gazed at the most wondrous phenomenon which the secret seas have hitherto revealed to mankind. A vast pulpy mass, furlongs [1/8 of a mile!] in length and breadth, lay floating on the water. Innumerable long arms radiated from its centre, curling and twisting like a nest of anacondas [strangling snakes], as if blindly to catch any hapless object within reach. No perceptible face or front did it have; but it undulated there on the billows, an unearthly, formless, chance-like apparition of life.
"With a low sucking sound it slowly disappeared again. Starbuck with a wild voice exclaimed, 'Almost rather had I seen Moby Dick and fought him, than to have seen thee, thou white ghost!'
"'What was it, Sir?' said Flask.
"'The great live squid, which -- they say -- few whaleships ever beheld and returned to their ports to tell of it.'"
Brilliant!!! (Score:1)
Wow, it's a good thing David Pemberton was on the scene.
Incredible... (Score:1)
They've got squid running in Tasmanian beaches!! (Score:1)
Oh wait, you meant the sea creature
did anyone look at the photo? (Score:1)
jf
Other Squid Links and Stories (Score:1)
Frankly, all that i can do is offer my best jacques cousteau impression, and hope that they don't evolve further.
NASA [nasa.gov]
Another Squid Site [si.edu]
Discovery Channel and the Giant Squid [discovery.com]
Weird Squids In Action [bournemouth.ac.uk] (that one's just fun for the cool giant squid graphics- how would YOU have done it?)
A A 1996 article regarding giant squid discovery> [carleton.ca]
A 2002 discovery of a MUCH smaller 'giant' squid [bbc.co.uk]
and of course, proof that there's a convention group for everything. [abdn.ac.uk]
And if anybody wants to know how i happen to know any of this, let's just say that i dated a marine biologist. It won't be true, but it would make my mum happy....
Robert Silverberg in Asimov's on these wacky Squid (Score:2)
No calamari, sorry (Score:1)