Animals, features and articles | Educational Science

Jan 18, 2022

World's deepest-dwelling squid spotted 20,000 feet under the sea

A team of researchers hunting for the wreck of a lost WWII destroyer ship in the Philippine Sea returned to land with another, perhaps even more exciting discovery: Video evidence of the deepest-swimming squid ever recorded. Cruising just above the floor of the Philippine Trench at a staggering 20,300 feet...

Mar 8, 2022

Ancient 10-armed vampire squid relative named for Joe Biden

Octopuses and vampire squid are famous for their eight arms, but one of the oldest relatives of the group that includes them didn't get the memo. This newly described creature, named Syllipsimopodi bideni after President Joe Biden, had a total of 10 arms when it was alive during the Carboniferous...

Mar 30, 2022

Weird-eyed strawberry squid spotted in 'twilight zone' off California's coast

On a recent deep dive into the twilight zone, a submersible hundreds of feet underwater filmed an unusual fruit-colored creature: a bright-red strawberry squid with eerie eyes — one small and black and the other large, bulbous and yellow. Oblivious to the video camera, the strawberry squid (Histioteuthis heteropsis) cruised...

May 4, 2022

Giant squid that washed up on a South African beach was 'incredible to see'

On April 30, beachgoers in Kommetjie, South Africa encountered a rare sight: a giant squid carcass glistening on the sand at Long Beach. It was incredible to see, Alison Paulus, a Cape Town resident and founder of the wildlife conservation organization Volunteer and Explore, told Live Science in an email....

Jul 8, 2022

Deep-sea squid mom carries dazzling pearl-like string of eggs

Extremely rare footage of a squid mom carrying a gelatinous string of glimmering pearl-like eggs in her arms has been captured in the dark ocean depths off the coast of California. Researchers from Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) recently spotted the deep-sea squid (an unknown species in the genus...

Aug 18, 2022

Giant 'kraken' carcass with dinner plate-size eyes washes ashore in South Africa

The massive, sucker-covered carcass of a giant squid washed onto the rocky shore of Scarborough Beach in Cape Town, South Africa, Tuesday (Aug. 16). The beast, which measured nearly 14 feet (4.3 meters) long, was the second giant squid to crop up on a beach in the region this year,...

Sep 14, 2022

Giant squid corpse with half-eaten tentacles stuns tourists on New Zealand beach

One of the deep sea's most elusive and spectacular creatures, the giant squid (Architeuthis dux), recently astonished a group of tourists after it washed up as a half-eaten corpse on a New Zealand beach. A tour guide who was leading the group at the time described the chance finding as...

Oct 14, 2022

True to Their Name, Vampire Squid May Have Long Lives

No one has ever seen vampire squid mate in the wild. But new research hints that the deep-sea creatures have a reproductive strategy that sets them apart from other cephalopods. While most female squid and octopuses have just one reproductive cycle before they die, vampire squid go through dozens of...

Oct 14, 2022

Night Vision Helps With Camouflage In Briny Deep

Marine masters of disguise and octopus relatives, cuttlefish can instantaneously camouflage themselves against any background--even in the dark of night, proving that they must have extremely fine-tuned night vision, according to a new study. Cuttlefish, octopuses and squid are members of a group of animals called cephalopods, which have evolved...

Oct 14, 2022

Squid 'Sees' with Its Skin (No Eyes Needed)

Squid, cuttlefish and octopuses are masters of camouflage, capable of changing their skin colors and patterns in the blink of an eye. And they may not even need their eyes to do it. Two new studies, published this week in the Journal of Experimental Biology, find that cephalopod skin is...

Nov 4, 2022

Giant purpleblack flying squid photobombs crew investigating shipwreck

Scientists mapping the seafloor in the Gulf of Aqaba, the right antenna part of the northern Red Sea, recently made two remarkable sightings almost simultaneously: a sunken shipwreck and a mysterious big squid zipping around it, according to the marine research organization OceanX. After sending down a remotely operated vehicle...

Nov 27, 2022

What is the largest squid in the world?

Legends about gargantuan squid have existed for millennia, with photos confirming their existence nearly 150 years ago. But what is the largest squid in the world? Depending on how you measure, there are two contenders. The giant squid (Architeuthis dux) is the longest squid, and the colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni)...

Jan 16, 2023

Squid and human brains develop the same way despite diverging 500 million years ago

Scientists who watched nerve cells connect inside the eyes of growing squid have uncovered a remarkable secret — the cephalopods’ brains independently evolved to develop in the same way ours do. The discovery, made using high-resolution cameras focused on the retinas of longfin squid (Doryteuthis pealeii) embryos, reveals that, in...

Jan 20, 2023

Diver captures stunning photos of rare 8-foot giant squid

A diver in Japan swam alongside an unusual companion earlier this month: An 8.2-foot-long (2.5 meter) giant squid. Yosuke Tanaka, who co-runs Dive Resort T-Style with his wife in Toyooka City, Japan, got the opportunity on Jan. 6 when a local ferryman called him to say that there was a...

Aug 22, 2023

Watch a see-through squid with demon-like eyes swim in Alaska's deep waters

An alien-looking, see-through squid with demonic red eyes has been filmed in the deep waters off the coast of Alaska. Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Ocean Exploration team spotted the glass squid (Taonius borealis) on July 15 while operating a remote-operated vehicle (ROV) at a depth...