Is this the real Magnapinna?

[Melissa]

There is a lot of junk in that squid's trunk.

That's the magna in magnapinna.

Do larger fins generally indicate stronger swimmers? Mesonychoteuthis also has a lot of junk in the trunk, compared to Architeuthis, and is expected to be the more aggressive hunter.

Melissa

 

[um...]

I was wondering if those huge fins might be better suited to generally slower but more efficient swimming. Could they be used for something like gliding, or as some sort of a drogue to slow the squid's rate of descent?

Thinkin' out loud...

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Before answering this post, Um...., I'd like to have a little more imagery (live animal footage) of various squid swimming - especially a contrast between big- and comparatively little-finned squid species.

The enormous and quite delicate fins of this Magnapinna would certainly appear more suited to gentle gliding or hovering than they would be to swimming ... but I don't want to say that this is the case (not yet). Just call it one of those mysteries, soon to be resolved.
Cheers
O

 

[um...]

Just call it one of those mysteries, soon to be resolved.

Done. I wasn't really expecting anything solid, given the 3(?) specimens in hand and the 0(?) observations of the things alive in the water.

 

[Alejandro Salcedo]

Hi,

Have you any idea where or how to obtain some of those submarine videos to analyize squid swimming ?
Cheers,
Alehandro


I'd like to have a little more imagery (live animal footage) of various squid swimming - especially a contrast between big- and comparatively little-finned squid species.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

There are quite a few snippets online, various locations, Alehandro, but from what I've seen so far you cannot look at fin morphology in isolation, relating this to an animal's behaviour; the film snippets are very much snapshots in time of a squid doing something remarkable or interesting, quite often an escape reaction, so it's hard to know what they do with their fins otherwise.

Over the next few months we intend to put series of 'swimming-squid' shots online (on Tonmo). Plans, plans, plans .... but little time.

 

[Clem]

Hello Alejandro,

In case you haven't seen these, yet:

http://www.mnh.si.edu/cephs/vetal01/vetal01.html

The last video clip on the page is especially good, showing mantle contraction and fin flapping.

Clem

 

[Alejandro Salcedo]

Thanks Clem,

I have seen these video clips and they are amazing. Somo of them seems to be middle size specimens.
Something I can learn from those, in the meantime.
Cheers,

Alejandro

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Well, I had a pleasant surprise last week - a wee vist from Dr Alejandro Salcedo; we sat down and talked squid all avo - twas wonderful. He's been a bit busy of late, hence his silence.

I like putting faces to names, so for those of you interested in what ceph gurus look like, well, here's Alejandro.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Any chance of finding these photos in the vaults Tony?

 

[DWhatley]

Steve,
I can't go into the archives and don't know if you are looking for squid or personal photos but I did a quick Google search for

Alejandro Salcedo Mastigoteuthis

and came up indirectly with this TOL page that may be of interest: Mastigoteuthis.

Also, if you are looking for something more that might be on the web, his whole name, Mario Alejandro Salcedo-Vargas might be helpful

 

[Heather Braid]

Hey D! Steve was telling me about these photos because the specimen that he was talking about in this thread is one that I might have (or now need to find) for my thesis since I'm working on the Mastigos in NZ. It would be really awesome if the pictures from this thread could be recovered because it would help me immensely.

 

[DWhatley]

Heather,
I kind of thought that might be the case from your FB communications and figured you had already been to TOL but that was all I could find. You might PM Tony with a link back to the thread to be sure he sees the request as he is the only one that MIGHT be able to locate the pictures that became detached during an upgrade. I think he has them but does not have a way to associate them with the posts.

 

[tonmo]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Any chance of finding these photos in the vaults Tony?

...looking now... thanks for the PM Heather!

 

[tonmo]

Are these the right ones? First two are titled magna_dorsal and magna_ventral, and the other one is titled mysterysquid683.