So like today Jay Bee and I went to visit the Colossal Squid that has taken up residence as Te Papa Museum. This squid caught the nation's attention when it was first caught, frozen and subsequently thawed for scientific examination.
Weighing at a Jesse Ryder-esque 490 kilos, the Colossal Squid looks like something out of an Alien movie:
You can see that it is missing its eye which adds to the scary appeal. Te Papa wrote on its web site: "In the collapsed state the eyes have been found, they measure 25 cm across, but in the living animal they are probably larger, up to around 30 cm in diameter. These are without doubt the largest eyes that have ever been studied (and probably among the largest eyes that have existed during the history of the animal kingdom)."
I wonder if some kind of dinosaur may have had bigger? Regardless this squid seems a part of the dinosaur era. I guess when you tell a hungry squid his eyes are as bigger as dinner plates, its true.
Squiddy, as I named her, is a pretty popular attraction at Te Papa, there were queues to see her! Who queues at a museum?
Jay Bee and her new friend, Squiddy:
Everyone round town has been saying "have you seen the giant squid yet? Go see the giant squid!" And so my idea of the squid was framed as being a giant squid. It's actually a colossal squid. Giant Squid are a whole different kind of squid...
This is what Squiddy looked like post thawing before scientists shoved cameras and what not up her calamari:
Extra for Experts:
Squid Facts by some scientists and not an excited blogger...
No comments:
Post a Comment