AFO Premiere (Colossal Squid/Sperm Whale)

[legendarycroc]

uh steve do you know whats the total length of an adult g. phylura? And why would it be the most terrifying squid?Accoring to http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Galiteuthis&contgroup=Cranchiidae
g. phylura does have hooks on its 2 long tentacles

 

[legendarycroc]

o another thing i read somewhere on tht web tht architeuthis could reach a mantle length of 5 metres could tht be true?

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Re: Hi!

Xcuse me sir but somebody refered me to u about caring for squid (kinda). They said u had alot of problems can u tell me about it? I am trying to raise some squid of my own and I have no clue how. Got any pointers or warnings? Im really new to this sort of thing. Thx a million!

Howdo there Octomush. I've just had a chat with Nancy; sorry that I missed your earlier posts in Ceph Q & A, but what I'll do is refer you back to Ceph Q & A and check out your posts there.

Yes, it has been extremely difficult to keep squid (for old people like me), but we've figured out a few basics now and I'm sure that if you get a few basic pieces of equipment - a cylindrical tank (and if you cannot get this, something like a concrete cow trough or 200 litre drum, kept outside with a shelter over the top [to stop rain water getting in]) you'll be able to do it. The trick is in the food, and getting lots of it, live, so you'll probably need 2 drums or troughs, or one nice cylindrical tank and another for keeping your food in.

I just need to know what sort of species you want to keep alive, whether you are collecting them as adults or as 'babies', or trying to do this from eggs.

I'll see you over in Ceph Q & A soon,
Toodles
Me

 

[Steve O'Shea]

uh steve do you know whats the total length of an adult g. phylura? And why would it be the most terrifying squid?Accoring to http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Galiteuthis&contgroup=Cranchiidae
g. phylura does have hooks on its 2 long tentacles

Yup, hooks on the tentacles, but not on the arms. As to the total length of the thing, well, that I don't know. I would imagine that the arms are considerably shorter than the mantle, so perhaps (if the mantle was 2.7 metres long), the arms might only be 2 metres long; the tentacles are probably not much longer than 4 metres (on a fully mature specimen, ML ~ 2.7m), so the total length would actually be ML (2.7m) + head length (~ 0.5m) + tentacle length (~ 4m), to give 7.2m (~22 feet) [you don't add the arms in, as the tentacles start at the base of the arms, and being longer you just take that measurement]. Please understand that this is just an educated guess!!

As to Architeuthis reaching 5 metres mantle length ..... no, I do not believe this for one second - not even a millisecond .... nor a squintillionth of a billionth of a second. The web is full of these exaggerated claims, and this is one that must not be taken seriously!

 

[legendarycroc]

then tht'll mean g. phylura will only be 5~ metres long! Rather short...lol...i think around 6-8 metres because the guess you made of meosnychoteuthis is 10-12 metres, and the mantle length of galiteuthis is a bit less than 2/3 of the ML of mesonychoteuthis, 2/3 of 12 metres is 9 M, and 2/3 of 10 M is 6.6 M, so i estimated 6-8 metres long...

 

[Steve O'Shea]

then tht'll mean g. phylura will only be 5~ metres long! ...

No, no no, G. phyllura would be ~ 7 metres (~ 7.2 as per my earlier post); you are right in estimating it to be 6-8 metres in TL.

 

[legendarycroc]

Wopps i think i misread it... o well....hehe im gonna get like 110 % in this cuz im handing it in early... its actually due next week THNX!

 

[legendarycroc]

steve did u know the whale was gonna win before they told u the results?

 

[joel_ang]

I still don't get how the whale shook the squid off when it had all those suckers and hooks...

 

[Steve O'Shea]

steve did u know the whale was gonna win before they told u the results?

Ja; in fact the squid came an electron close to being the winner .... but I didn't want that (there'd have been an uproar); in fact we sat around a table and discussed it, and I insisted that the whale win.

canna figure how the whale shook the squid

The whale charged to the surface; the squid holding on for dear life (and digging in), met with too much water resistance, basically slipping down the whale's massive head, eventually falling off. It was then toast.

 

[legendarycroc]

lol, thts making me hungry....how much did the 2 models weigh?

 

[Sordes]

Unfortunately I have seen only one of the episodes (shark vs. crocodile), and it was really interesting, but I have to say that it was often highly populistic. It is also interesting that despite some of their "calculations" seems to be completely wrong. For example the hypotethical fight lion vs grizzly. They write that a lion would easily kill a grizzly, because it is faster, and the grizzly had no chance. Interestingly there were in fact around 1900 some pit fights with grizzlies, and they killed even large male lions with ease, smashing their spines or skulls with one blow of their paws.
But in the case spermwhale vs. colossal squid they were surely right, a squid has no chance against such a megapredator like Physeter macrocephalus.

 

[legendarycroc]

For example the hypotethical fight lion vs grizzly. They write that a lion would easily kill a grizzly, because it is faster, and the grizzly had no chance. Interestingly there were in fact around 1900 some pit fights with grizzlies, and they killed even large male lions with ease, smashing their spines or skulls with one blow of their paws.

Sordes,
I believe you're speaking of the "AFO game"- we had several conflicting arguments of that game on several other forums like GZS, AVA and the original "AFO boards" (where my roots originated). The game was concluded to be created by the curator of the Discovery Channel forum- though expert opinions were noted, they were only "evidence" that may support the victory of animal A. After much debating on this topic- I personally discovered yet another flaw with the game, that is- they used a measurement scale: Animal A will win x/10. When infact even if you have combatents as closely matched as lion and tiger- the victor may very well win 9/10, and given another set out of 10, it may only win 6.

Many 20century bear vs bull/lion fights were exaggerated. Lairweb does provide several accounts like so but nonetheless this site has no reference! Most sites deem it uncredible for this reason. There are, however real accounts of bull/ bear fights described in a book that a friend of mine has, though the bear does not win with a single strike to the head.

 

[chrono_war01]

I saw it...2 years ago? I remember it was a month before TONMOcon.

I remember the part where they put the squid between the mech-sperm whale and they made it bit down on it all in the name of science...

 

[legendarycroc]

in fact the squid came an electron close to being the winner .... but I didn't want that (there'd have been an uproar); in fact we sat around a table and discussed it, and I insisted that the whale win.

Steve,
Who do you think would really win in such a hypothetical fight betweena fully grown mesonychoteuthis and sperm whale, and why?