Today's Video

Giant squids with Tim&Moby


A giant squid is a mysterious animal that lives 1,000 feet under the sea. They are pretty hard to find. A giant squid is just a 16meter version of it's cousin, the regular squid, which is less than 1meter. Like all squids, the giant squid belong to a family of animals called the mollusks, a family of boneless animals like snails, squids, octopuses, clams, and oysters. The giant squid has some of the largest eyes in the animal kingdom, as big as a football. When sailors first explored the sea, they came back with crazy tales. One of them was that some giant tentacles reach out of the water and pull your ship down below the waves. Many people believed is the monster Scylla from the Greek mythology. Others believe is the Kraken from the of the Norwegian legends. They might all be based on the giant squid. Like all mollusks, the giant squid has a mantle, or a bulk of skin that protects the weaker parts of the squid's body. To support the mantle, it rely on a organ that stays forever called a gladius, a blade like structure. Giant squids also have the muscular feet common to all mollusks, except it is reduced now to two long tentacles and eight shorter tentacles. The giant squid uses the tentacles to catch prey like large fish or other squids. The tentacles are all covered in hundreds of suction cups, each with a ring of teeth around the edges. The giant squid use the tentacles to move the prey toward the biting range of the squid's beak-like mouth. After chomping off some part of the prey, food are passed through the radula, a hard tongue that many mollusks all have. Then the food is transported into the esophagus. But no worries, the giant squid don't usually eat people or robots. They do have one enemy, that is the sperm whale. The scientists found squid beaks in the whale's stomach and suction cups marks on their bodies. Now scientists follow the whales on their hunting trips to see the giant squids. Giant squids are some interesting animals! Moby is scared.