too many words by laura lemay

real giant squid pics!

I did see the headlines for the giant squid pics{.broken_link} going by in my newsreader yesterday, but I numbly thought yeah yeah, giant squid, blah blah. Giant squid have been washing up on beaches for years now. Everyone knows the cool thing to watch out for these days is the colossal squid. Giant squid are so last century.

But thanks to no less than THREE astute readers I was disabused of my misunderstanding. This is not yet another giant squid carcass. These are pictures of the live animal in the sea. No one’s seen the critter alive, let alone photographed it before now. It’s at least 25 feet long and the Japanese researchers pulled the long tentacles off of it while they were baiting and photographing it, which enabled them to verify that it was indeed the right species. They also comment that the giant squid is “a much more active predator than previously suspected.”

Eeeeee! Bad childhood 20,000 Leagues flashbacks!