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First Photos Taken of a Live Giant Squid
News story originally written on October 12, 2005
For the first time ever a living giant squid has been photographed in its deep ocean habitat! Japanese scientists found and photographed the squid at about 3000 feet (900 meters) below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
As the name implies, the squid are very large, up to 60 feet long. The one found by this research team was a mere 25 feet in length. The eyeballs of the giant squid are exceptionally large. Each eyeball is larger than a person's head, about 18 inches across.
Giant squid live by themselves in the deep ocean, typically far away from land. They are Mollusks, and are relatives of smaller squid and octopus. All squid, even the small ones, are carnivores and hunt their prey, but only giant squid can hunt animals as large as whales!
The research team took more than 500 pictures of the squid. Take a look at some of them by clicking here.
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