Strangeness of the living: an alien in the abyss

We share the Terre with creatures so strange that they awaken our imagination. We believe they came from elsewhere, yet they live well on our planet, far from our eyes. the to calm long-armed, or squid spider (Magnapinna sp.) lives in the abyss, its exact distribution is not known as it is rare. A first living specimen was observed in the 1990s by submarines autonomous. Previously, scientists only knew of their existence through stranded dead individuals or the capture of juveniles.

A few years ago, in 2007, scientists filmed a long-armed squid in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, more than two kilometers below the surface. Those cephalopods are characterized by long arms that can be twenty times their body length. Scientists know little more about them and their behavior. In 2020, five specimens have been observed off Australia for the first time. These observations provide valuable information on the squids with long arms. It appears that their coat is of color brown and like to take a special position above the ocean floor. Nicknamed ” elbow pose These cephalopods were filmed swimming vertically, with the distal tentacles bent 90 ° toward the ocean floor, as seen in the video below.