Architeuthis again (never a dull moment in New Zealand)

[Steve O'Shea]

.... hmmmmm, that backfired on me didn't it! Wait till TONMOcon ...

 

[nanoteuthis]

And there we have it... Mr September for the Men of Tonmo calendar.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Ahem....

Here are a few of the pics taken when we defrosted a couple of squid in the carpark; unfortunately neither the pics nor the specimens are great. The carpark still smells!!

 

[Steve O'Shea]

And these are a couple of shots of Taningia danae (for our resident Tani); we'll have something a little more scientific online soon (bearing in mind that a dead animal looks disgusting ... and these have been through a trawl .... obviously even if returned to the sea, whilst at sea, the animal would have died [even though it is dead by the time it reaches the ship]!).
Cheers
O

 

[nanoteuthis]

My poor li'l bro's and sis's, they didn't stand a chance! Steve-O', you are thoroughly heartless.

Seriously -- were the photophores torn off, or did they just shrivel up after the TDs had been dead for awhile? I don't see any in the picture, and I know they're supposed to be the size and shape of lemons. I assume it's difficult to get photos of a living Taningia (note use of italics to avoid confusion with present company) -- the only good one I've seen is Clyde's "flasher" at the Ocean Planet site ("Come to Grips with Taningia").

Regarding Archi Image #10: Don't New Xenaland rabbis wear a yarmulke when they do a bris?

 

[Steve O'Shea]

....'lemon-sized' is a bit like a 60-foot long Architeuthis .... unless it was a small/green lemon. Down here in NZ we grow our lemons the size of pumpkins. I think there's a bit of naughty exaggeration going on in the literature, perpetuated in modern-day accounts simply because nobody is saying otherwise. The time has come to talk of structure size in non-sporting (soccer balls), -dining (dinner plates), -vegetable (pumpkins and lemons), and -vehicular (bus) terms. Metric rules!

The photophores are there - just the 'flashing part' is obscured by lappets. Tintentoontarantulafish is doing something with the pics now to show you where the little glowbulbs are.
Toodles
O

 

[Tintenfisch]

Here's a close-up of those photophores, Tani.
I'd say they were approximately 2.5431176289 cm long.

 

[nanoteuthis]

Here's a close-up of those photophores, Tani.
I'd say they were approximately 2.5431176289 cm long.

Ah-hah! Thank you for the closeup. Just for the sake of comparison, how big was that particular TD? Because I believe that the "lemon" analogy for the photophores was based upon a 7 ft. (maybe 2.5 m? I'm no good at converting ft./in. to metric) animal.

Anyhow, is it indeed true that T. danae's photophores are the largest light-producing appendages in the world? Or is that record still held by Elton John's concert glasses?

 

[Clem]

Great new photos, guys.

Are all of T. danae's suckers of the claw-bearing variety? Are they firmly rooted to the arms or capable of rotation? I'm surprised at the colors; I'd have guessed that the outer surfaces of the arms would be red, with the inner portion grey to white.

As for Picture #10, I feel sorry for that guy. As I write this post, that photo is probably being circulated amongst his family, friends and potential romantic partners.

Clem

 

[Jean]

The hands in pic 7 are mine (If you look closely you can see a foot, 'tis the ONLY pic of my feet known to exist !!). And no I wasn't wearing gloves, there is nothing like the feel/smell of fresh (well almost) squid!

J

 

[Steve O'Shea]

.... the good looking, rugged and handsome fellow immediately behind the cone in pic 1 is me (the one doing the talking - ie., all of the work); I think this is one of my better shots

Clem, I believe (I read somewhere) that the first sucker on each arm lacks a hook; this is something that we'll look at shortly ... afraid I'm just too beat right now to pull an animal from a vat to check.

Cheers
O

 

[Steve O'Shea]

.... hard to control excitement....hard to control excitement .... hard to control excitement ....
BUT

.... look what I just got out of a fish stomach!!!!! And the squid that it belongs to IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE FOUND WHERE THE FISH WAS COLLECTED ... the squid is otherwise very well-known from NZ.

Hard to control excitement ... hard to control excitement ....

.... we're closing in on our quarry! We now know where it is for another part of its life cycle!

 

[Jean]

OMG


Just responding to the general air of excitement in your post and too much V & Red Bull

Deep breath now inhaaaaaale and exhaaaaale now that we're a little calmer

what fish and where was it?

J

 

[Steve O'Shea]

.... more news just in ... from a 'secret' (i.e., closely guarded!!) location off northernmost New Zealand (like they're NOT SUPPOSED TO BE FOUND UP THERE) ....AND from the stomach of a male blue shark!!!

So, what's that blue shark doing, what depth is it feeding at, and what is the squid doing up there?!?!? Was the squid live or dead when eaten? These things have a habit of snowballing .... this morn I never expected I'd be researching what is known of blue shark feeding behaviour ....

It is .... pause ..... ..... (poker face) Architeuthis!

 

[Clem]

Steve,

Wow. You've probably already run down this information, but any TONMO users curious about the Blue shark (Prionace glauca) can get a good primer from the Fishbase.org page devoted to the type. (At the bottom of the page, click on the "Food items" link to see a list of the Blue's known prey, which includes a rogue's gallery of cephalopods.) Blues are usually found swimming near the surface, with a depth range of 0-350m; other sources give 150m as a more usual maximum depth. Their global distribution is truly catholic, and they make long trips. Note the Fishbase reference to a tagged Blue that traveled from NZ to Chile. That's a long trip.

Was this Blue taken close to shore? What else was in its gut?

Is he the one who bit poor Foo?

Clem