Antarctic Squid - camera shy?

[Phil]

News report here of an Antarctic squid that has managed to photograph itself. The squid managed to accidently activate the shutter on a camera attached to a probe capturing this extraordinary image:

http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1260&storyid=914660

 

[BigSquid8Me]

antarctic squid

Amazing! What species is that? Is it a Todarodes?


BigSquid8Me

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Todarodes wasn't a bad guess at all, but I'd be reluctant to take a guess without looking at a few more pics, and they might not exist (this could have been a one-off stills shot).

The dorsal surface of head and mantle seem to be fused .... which is non-ommastrephid (incl. Todarodes) in nature ... rather cranchiid in fact ... but it doesn't look like any cranchiid with which I'm familiar; moreover, I think the so-called fusion of mantle and head is an artefact of picture resolution.

Very cool; should get on the blower to the Ausi folk and see if we can procure a higher resolution pic.
Cheers
O

 

[Jean]

NEW???????


J

 

[Steve O'Shea]

... on the work PC, better screen, I still see what looks like some fusion of the mantle and head (dorsally), which is rather odd, but I also see what could be some textured skin, possibly lumpy ... which would make it (most likely) some sort of onychoteuthid (like Moroteuthis) ... except for that apparent mantle/head fusion.

... off to get on the blower

{Ed ... just off the blower, as in email ... hopefully we'll have better imagery soon}
O

 

[tonmo]

Yeah, cool story, great pic... here's a cross-reference just FYI...

 

[Steve O'Shea]

... wrote to the wrong Dick Williams (all rather amusing, given the esoteric nature of my request). Will try again, and again, and again ....