Download Squid Game Jepang
Dorotha Grant
The scientific names of the two new species take inspiration from Japanese folklore, owing to their appearance and behavior. The Ryukyuan Pygmy Squid, Idiosepius kijimuna, is named after the short, red-haired forest fairies that are said to live in the banyan trees of Okinawa. Like their namesake, the squids are tiny, feature red coloration and spend most of their time in their forest habitat, attached to vegetation in shallow seagrass beds close to the coast.
The perhaps unusual species name of jujutsu alludes to the preying behavior of the squid, which resembles the Japanese martial art: "Jiu-jitsu revolves around grappling and using your opponent's strength, and the Kodama jujutsu preys on shrimp larger than itself by grappling with its small arms," says Jeffrey Jolly from the Marine Climate Change Unit at OIST, who co-authored the paper detailing the discovery of the two species in the Journal Marine Biology. The squid has also been observed with its arms raised and curled above its head, reminiscent of a martial arts pose.
Finding the squids was no easy feat. Both species live up to their names, as they truly are miniscule -- the largest specimen examined measured just 12 millimeters in length, shorter than a sewing needle.
Adding to this, both species are only active at night, and the Ryukyuan only appears in winter. Even then, this species has been caught and (incorrectly) identified many times before, being found in the relatively accessible, shallow seagrass beds. This is in contrast to the more elusive Hannan's, which is only found in coral reefs, where, as Jeffrey Jolly puts it, "there are so many other things to look at, that finding a small squid the size of a pinky fingernail is not easy," even for experienced ocean photographers.
Like their mythical namesakes, these pygmy squids are intimately connected with their natural environments in the emerald waters of Okinawa. These habitats are, unfortunately, under threat from human activity, especially due to climate change heating up the ocean waters, which may cause coral bleaching. Overfishing, land reclamation, and soil runoff also threaten the underwater homes of the critters, no matter how large or miniscule they may be.
The perhaps unusual species name of jujutsu alludes to the preying behavior of the squid, which resembles the Japanese martial art. "Jiu-jitsu revolves around grappling and using your opponent's strength, and the Kodama jujutsu preys on shrimp larger than itself by grappling with its small arms," says Jeffrey Jolly from the Marine Climate Change Unit at OIST, who co-authored the paper detailing the discovery of the two species in the journal Marine Biology. The squid has also been observed with its arms raised and curled above its head, reminiscent of a martial arts pose.
Caught from the Hokuriku seas, the Surume Ika is a seasonal delight. Good to enjoy year round, these Flying Squids are in constant demand by the connoisseurs. With its naturally sweet flesh, they can be enjoyed in many ways. Have them as sashimi, simmer them, roast them, or even fry them! You can enjoy every part of the squid (sans the fin inside the head), making this a great catch. Of course, don't forget to reserve the ink sack for a delicious pasta dish.
But after years of searching, in 2012 a group of scientists from Japan's National Science Museum along with colleagues from Japanese public broadcaster NHK and the Discovery Channel filmed a giant squid in its natural habitat for the first time. The species was first recorded live in 2006, after researchers suspended bait beneath a research vessel off the Ogasawara Islands to try and hook a giant squid. As the camera whirred, the research team pulled a 24-foot (7-meter) squid to the surface alive enabling people around the world to finally see a living, breathing giant squid.
FEEDING TENTACLES
Giant squid can snatch prey up to 33 feet (10 meters) away by shooting out their two feeding tentacles, which are tipped with hundreds of powerful sharp-toothed suckers. These feeding tentacles are very long, often doubling the total length of the giant squid on their own.
ARMS AND BEAK
Eight thick arms speckled with 2-inch wide toothed suckers guide prey from the feeding tentacles to a sharp beak in the center of the arms, where the prey is sliced into bite-sized pieces. These bites are further cut and ground by the radula, a tongue-like organ covered with rows of teeth, that is inside the squid's beak.
Unfortunately, the reports of their size are often exaggerated since finding a live giant squid is an extremely rare event. Almost everything people know about giant squid comes from specimens washed up on beaches. Sometimes their tentacles or arms have fallen off, or have been eaten by other animals while afloat in the ocean. On the other hand, when they wash ashore, the squids can be bloated with water, appearing bigger than they really are.
Because tentacles and arms fall off or, alternatively, can be stretched out, scientists often use mantle length as the best measure of a squid's actual size. The longest mantle length on record is 7.4 feet (2.25 meters); the length from the tip of the top fin to the end of the arms rarely exceeds 16 feet (5 meters), and the longest total length (including tentacles) of a squid on record is 43 feet (13 meters). A new method for figuring out how big a squid can get includes using beak size to estimate total body length, a helpful tool considering the hard beaks are often found in the stomachs of sperm whales. Based on this new method scientists believe the giant squid could reach lengths up to 66 feet (20 meters) long, making it potentially larger than the colossal squid, however, a real-life squid of this size has never been documented.
But does a big giant squid necessarily mean a strong one? If they were proportionally as strong as their smaller cousins, the Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas), giant squid would be VERY strong, says Smithsonian squid expert Clyde Roper. "However, their muscular structure, density and fluid composition indicate that they are not nearly that strong," he says. However, that doesn't make them sluggish weaklings. They have thousands of suckers working in unison on eight arms and two tentacles, with a rapidly-contracting mantle, to help capture and kill prey.
The giant squid is not just a single species -- or is it? Some researchers think there are as many as 8 species in the genus Architeuthis (Greek for "chief squid"), each a different kind of giant squid. But other researchers think there is just one Architeuthis that swims in the world's ocean. There is no consensus because the squid are so hard to track and there are so few specimens available for study.
These squid species are closely related to snails, clams, and even slugs: they are all mollusks, which are defined by their soft bodies. Some of these soft bodies are encased in hard shells, such as clams and snails, but not the squids.
Giant squid are thought to swim in the ocean worldwide, based on the beaches they've washed upon, as shown in the map (via Wikimedia Commons). However, they're rarely found in tropical and polar areas. They commonly wash up on the shores of New Zealand and Pacific islands, make frequent appearances on the east and west sides of the Northern Atlantic, and the South Atlantic along the southern coast of Africa.
How long does it take to grow so big? Unlike mammals, including people, and many fish species, cephalopods grow very quickly and die after a short life. Evidence from statoliths (a small mineralized mass that helps squid balance), which accumulate "growth rings" and can be used to measure age, suggests that giant squid live no more than five years -- which means each squid must grow incredibly quickly to reach 30 feet in just a few years! To grow at such a rate, giant squid must live in areas of the ocean where there is an abundant supply of food to provide enough energy.
Smaller than the head of a pin, this arrow squid (Doryteuthis plei) embryo looks like a miniature adult and is almost ready to hatch! Depending on the squid species, the development from a fertilized egg to a nearly-hatched larva can take one or several weeks.
The rest of the story from here is mostly guesswork. The sperm could travel through her arms to fertilize the eggs internally. But researchers suspect that the arm-shot of spermatophores triggers the female squid's ovaries to release eggs bound together with jelly, which she holds in her arms. Then the sperm sense the eggs nearby and migrate in that direction to fertilize the eggs.
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