Colossal Squid Pulled from the Depths of Antarctica

A team of scientists in New Zealand have pulled up from the depths of the Antarctic a fabled colossal squid, only the second intact specimen ever found in the ocean.

With tentacles like fire hoses and eyes the size of dinner plates, the 770-pound (350-kg) female was caught a couple of months ago in the Ross Sea off the coast of Antarctica by a team fishing for Patagonian toothfish.

What they didn't expect to find some 1,200 to 1,800 feet down was a colossal squid.

It had been frozen for eight months until Tuesday, when scientists got the long-anticipated chance to thaw out the animal and inspect it - once they used a forklift to maneuver it into a tank.

"This is essentially an intact specimen, which is almost an unparalleled opportunity for us to examine," Kat Bolstad, a squid scientist from the Auckland University of Technology, who led the examination, told The Associated Press (AP). "This is a spectacular opportunity."

Colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) are found in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, diving as deep as 7,200 feet (2.2 kilometers), according to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, where the creature is on display. These ocean monsters are shorter than their legendary cousins, giant squid, but heavier. The largest known specimen of a colossal squid weighed about 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms), according to Business Insider.

And like their brethren, colossal squid have eight arms and two longer feeding tentacles that help them bring food to their beak-like mouths. But even their massive size is not enough to protect it from the sperm whale, whose diet mostly consists of these creatures.

Scientists do not know much more about these elusive animals, as reports have been few and far between, but their existence has been known since 1925, when squid remains were found in a sperm whale's stomach. It wasn't until 2007 that the tales of this ocean titan were confirmed when researchers miraculously caught the first live colossal squid in the Ross Sea, also on display in Te Papa.

Now, with this new catch, scientists can learn more about where the deep-sea diver fits in the food chain, how much genetic variation there is among different squid types, and basic facts about how the colossal squid lives and dies, the AP reports.

The dissection on Tuesday, carried out by museum staff with the Auckland University of Technology, can be viewed here.