Post Syndicated from Bruce Schneier original https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/12/friday-squid-blogging-deep-dwelling-squid.html

We have discovered a squid — (Oegopsida, Magnapinnidae, Magnapinna sp.) — that lives at 6,000 meters deep.

:They’re really weird,” says Vecchione. “They drift along with their arms spread out and these really long, skinny, spaghetti-like extensions dangling down underneath them.” Microscopic suckers on those filaments enable the squid to capture their prey.

But the squid that Jamieson and Vecchione saw in the footage captured 6,212 meters below the ocean’s surface is a small one. They estimate that its mantle measured 10 centimeters long — ­about a third the size of the largest-known magnapinnid. And the characteristically long extensions observed on other magnapinnids were nowhere to be seen in the video. That could mean, says Vecchione, that this bigfin squid was a juvenile.

Research paper.

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

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