Mastigoteuthis sp.
Since I recently pointed out the strange news reports of an “octosquid” that even went so far as to call it half squid/half octopus, I thought I’d show why the preliminary assignment to the genus Mastigoteuthis was suggestive. It probably did have 8 arms and 2 tentacles … before it got sucked up in a pipe and flung to the surface. Those two feeding tentacles are delicate.
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
On the topic of Squid, I thought you might get a kick out of this:
http://skippyslist.com/2007/07/09/cephalopod-surprise/
If you had said they’d just discovered this on Titan, I’d have believed you…
Thanks, Ashaman.
“PIE DOESN’T HAVE TENTACLES!”
What a hoot…
Oh, cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!!! :-)
Is it just me, or does this thing look like it’s wearing shoes?
Ashaman, I second Chuck C – what a hoot!!
Careful folks – don’t be sippin’ your morning coffee if you pop over to read Ashaman’s link. Pretty damn funny.
Interesting, I thought the original picture of the octosquid looked like two of the tentacles were thicker than the others but I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t just due to the angle they were being held. Now the example above definitely has two tentacles thicker than the others.