Help required by student (Gamergal07)

[Steve O'Shea]

I have received this one today, but have far too many things on to respond to it right now; moreover, I responded to this effect at the address '[email protected]', and it bounced back.

I'll post it here in the hope someone else can address a number of the questions (I know some are directed specifically to me); much of the content is online already - it is just not synthesised.

Thanks in anticipation
Steve
...............................
i realize you are really busy but i would really appreciate it if you could answer these questions for me as soon as possible (i need them for a project due very soon)
1. What kinds of new technology are you using to find the architeuthis?
2. What will you do differently to keep the baby squid alive longer?
3. What does architeuthis dux actually mean?
4. How did the giant squid get the name architeuthis dux?
5. How do scientist know that the colossal squid is all that aggressive?
6. How many types of squid are there( that we know about )?
7. Which species is closest to the giant squid?
8. Why is it that we know more about dinosaurs than squid?
9. Does anybody know how long the giant squid have been around?
10. By looking at the mythology books we can guess that maybe giant squid were seen alive in the past, do you think that something we are doing today might be harming the giant squid enough for them to only be seen dead?

[email protected]

 

[Tintenfisch]

1. What kinds of new technology are you using to find the architeuthis?
3. What does architeuthis dux actually mean?
4. How did the giant squid get the name architeuthis dux?
5. How do scientist know that the colossal squid is all that aggressive?
6. How many types of squid are there( that we know about )?
7. Which species is closest to the giant squid?
10. By looking at the mythology books we can guess that maybe giant squid were seen alive in the past, do you think that something we are doing today might be harming the giant squid enough for them to only be seen dead?

OK, here are a few answers.

1. Many technologies have been used in the past, mostly various types of submersibles and ROVs with cameras, with very little success. At present, finding the juvenile or paralarval giant squid seems more probable, by gathering information on where giant squid are breeding and tracking the water masses that would carry the eggs and predicting where the hatching paralarvae will be.

3&4. 'Archi-' = 'first'; '-teuthis' = 'squid'; 'dux' = 'leader.' Steenstrup, who described the only currently valid species of Architeuthis in 1857, named it A. dux. There is more information on it on the Tree of Life Architeuthidae page. Another source that may help you is Richard Ellis' book The Search for the Giant Squid.

5. Several things about Mesonychoteuthis suggest it to be a fast-moving, aggressive squid. It has very large, very muscular fins that should in theory allow it to move very quickly. Its arms are quite robust, in addition to having large nasty hooks, and would be very good for restraining large, aggressive prey. And there have been reports of fishermen setting longlines in the Antarctic for Patagonian toothfish (which are large (up to 2m), aggressive fish), and those longlines coming up with partially-eaten fish on them, sometimes bearing sucker marks, so something big enough and aggressive enough is eating them off the line - and two whole or partial specimens of the colossal have also come up on the hooks.

6. The Decapodiformes on the Tree of Life can help you out here.

7. The giant squid is in its own monotypic family, the Architeuthidae. Recent DNA work places it in a group with some individuals from the families Onychoteuthidae and Gonatidae.

10. There are some conservation concerns for the well-being of the giant squid. For example, over the past 40 years (at least in the New Zealand region), the diet of toothed whales has shifted from about 60% cephalopods to 100% cephalopods (very probably due to the commercial-fishery-induced destruction of the populations of large fish that were making up the other 40%). Does this mean whales are preying much more on Architeuthis than they used to? Very probably. However, we also know that the adult giant squid is most commonly found at 400-500 m depth, and has never yet been found (alive and healthy) anywhere more shallow than 250 m. And that is unlikely to be a recent development, so it is still likely that new and old accounts of strong, aggressive giant squid attacking things at the surface are exaggerated, to say the least.

Good luck!

 

[Phil]

8. Why is it that we know more about dinosaurs than squid?

Do we? I'm afraid the question doesn't make much sense. From what viewpoint? On the contrary, we know a great deal more about squid than dinosaurs......Squid are directly observable, we know a great deal about their lifestyle, behaviour, geographic distribution, biology and they have been reared in captivity. However we can only make speculated guesses as to how the dinosaurs lived, appeared and behaved based on a few dusty fossilised bones unearthed here and there.

9. Does anybody know how long the giant squid have been around?

Prehistoric giant squid were swimming around in what was to become Kansas and Manitoba 80 million years ago during the late Cretaceous period. They were not closely related to Architeuthis and were not its direct ancestors, in fact they were probably a distant relative of Vampyroteuthis, a separate cephalopod lineage. There is no fossil evidence to suggest when Architeuthis evolved, we know just that it did....unlike ammonites the fossil record of squid is very poor indeed. Forgive me here, but if you are interested and at the risk of a blatant plug, here's a link to my recent article on Tusoteuthis and other ancient giants:

Tusoteuthis and the Cretaceous Giant Squids

 

[Tintenfisch]

Hey guys, I've just gotten another email from this student, whose deadline fast approacheth. But I have not been able to get an email through to her - they keep bouncing back. Can anyone (on aol maybe?) get a message through to [email protected] with a link to this thread, to let her know that the answers she wants are here? Please?

Thanks everyone

 

[Gaetan P.]

I just tried to send it...I'll let you know if it works..

 

[Tintenfisch]

Great - thanks very much.

 

[Gaetan P.]

no go...it didn't work mail failure,,,I think it is a problem on her side...have you sent to this email before?

 

[Tintenfisch]

No, and it hasn't gone through from at least 3 of the () 4 email addresses I've tried sending from... hotmail may have worked, or at least hasn't returned it yet. I get a 'user unknown' error, but she's obviously able to send from that address. Weird.

 

[Gaetan P.]

how about the old fashioned way...do you have a phone number?

 

[Clem]

I just tried sending an AIM message, using "gamergal07" as the handle. Maybe she can be reached thataway.