No, not a calamari and pasta dish, a real squid with elbows.
The video was filmed by a ROV (remotely operated vehicle) at the Shell Oil, Perdido drilling site located 200 miles off of Houston in the Gulf of Mexico.
What is it, you ask? A Magnapinna; from National Geographic…
Based on analysis of videos not unlike the one captured at the Perdido site, scientists know that the adult Magnapinna observed to date range from 5 to 23 feet (1.5 to 7 meters) long, Vecchione said. By contrast, the largest known giant squid measured about 16 meters (52 feet) long.
And whereas giant squid and other cephalopods have eight short arms and two long tentacles, Magnapinna has ten indistinguishable appendages that all appear to be the same length.
“The most peculiar structure is that of the arms,” said deep-sea biologist Bruce Robison of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California.
Referring to the way the tentacles hang down from elbow-like kinks, Robison said: “Judging from that structure, we think the animal feeds by dragging its arms and the ends of its tentacles along the seafloor as it drifts slowly above it.”
The elbow-like angles allow the tentacles to spread out, perhaps preventing them from getting tangled.
“Imagine spreading the fingers of a hand and dragging the fingertips along the top of a table to grab bits of food,” he added
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How can I sensibly be a squid hugger when “The study demonstrated that Magnapinna are common worldwide in the bathypelagic zone, permanently dark zone of the ocean below about 4,000 feet (1,219 meters).” ?
Those elbows are result of parent magnapinna’s crooking the squidlettes little arms from squid-birth. It aids in the rites of passage when the little mitzva’s have to demonstrate elite Magnapinna Kungfu and become bottom feeders, literally.
You’re relatively close to Houston so what you lose in depth you make up in highway miles.
There’s very little than can make up for the lack of depth in Houston…
Oh, that’s not true.
Well, it kind of is.
Just as I’m trying to come to terms with my irrational fear of sharks you hit me with 16m long giant squids, soon to come with opposable thumbs, no doubt.
Squids with opposable thumbs would be useful for offshore, outsourced data entry.
How long till you get those squids with those elbows trained in demolition? We have a immediate opening for deep sea demo\repair job in New York:
See, some of us guys in Houston know a little somethin’ somethin’ about somethin’.. not all of us have that shallows digitalis..