vampirus?

[heykay15]

hi im looking for the name of an octopus i've seen twice on television.

i can only describe it, but for some reason i remember the name vampirus, but that might be me just recreating architeuthis' name.

well the octoups is deep-water sorta of a dark grayish color, but instead of suckers it has barbs all on the underside of its body. the ocotpus inverted itself showing all it's barb hooks on it tentatcles. also the ocotpus has bright blue eyes. trying to find some more about the cephlapod. thank you very much everyone.

 

[um...]

Was it this?

Vampyroteuthis infernalis

 

[joel_ang]

to TONMO.com!!

I think the deep sea squid you are refering to is Vampyroteuthis, the vampire squid ( wonder why they always add the "from hell" part) Its actually red to camouflage itself as red light doesn't penetrate such depths. As for the blue eyes part, they are photophores, not eyes, Its kind of bioluminesence for which the reason is not quite clear YET.

I guess you were watching Nat Geo when that show aired the other day?

 

[heykay15]

yes yes thank you. but why is it considered a squid more than an octopus. i kept getting it confused with dumbo since thye both have the "ears"

must be that the arms have actually fused together. humm thanx!
actually read some of it, gelatinous? doesn't seem that gelatinous to me, but what would kay know. darn some of those pics are going to give me nightmares lol. yes it indeed is very red, but i guess the underside is dark grey in some pics at least.

actually i watched this octopus video must of been discovery, once in our marine bio class and another it was playing on our PBS.

 

[Jean]

to TONMO.com!!

I think the deep sea squid you are refering to is Vampyroteuthis, the vampire squid ( wonder why they always add the "from hell" part)

Probably to titilate the public!!! and the infernalis part apparently translates as "from hell"!

J

 

[Phil]

yes yes thank you. but why is it considered a squid more than an octopus. i kept getting it confused with dumbo since thye both have the "ears"

Hi heykay15,

Vampyroteuthis is a unique animal. Actually, it is neither squid or octopus although it is frequently referred to as a squid. This animal is the only surviving member of the Vampyromorpha that we are aware of. The Vampyromorpha were a truly ancient group that first appeared, it is believed about 345 million years ago. The Octopus developed from these animals sometime in the Jurassic period, possibly around 200 mya, possibly explaining the resemblance to the cirrate octopuses as you point out. The thing is, the squid branch (inc. cuttlefish much later) developed around the same time from the same common ancestor in the Early Carboniferous, but the two groups did not mix.

So you could say that Vampyroteuthis is a very ancient cousin of the squid, but probably slightly closer related to the octopus. If you have a look at the 'Ages of Cephalopods' diagram in the Ceph Fossils section, it should help clarify the idea. (A picture paints a thousand words, they say).

Cheers! Good question!

 

[Melissa]

Thank you, Phil, you've answered a question I've had all along but never had a chance to look up! Or even ask, thank you, Kay! Phil's answered a horde of questions: what is that? where'd it come from? Is it a squid or an octopus? This last is the same as Kay's.

yes yes thank you. but why is it considered a squid more than an octopus.

Vampyroteuthis is a unique animal. Actually, it is neither squid or octopus although it is frequently referred to as a squid. This animal is the only surviving member of the Vampyromorpha that we are aware of. The Vampyromorpha were a truly ancient group that first appeared, it is believed about 345 million years ago.

 

[joel_ang]

That was also a question which I had been wondering about. I saw that vampyroteuthis had no tentacles and eight arms so it kinda made me wonder.

Well anyway the show on Nat Geo was called "Vampire from the Abyss" and was 60min long.

 

[Phil]

Thanks Melissa.

Joel, heykay,

Although Vampyroteuthis does not have two seizing tentacles as with squid, it actually has two long filaments instead but these are usually rolled up and retracted, being tucked away under the web so you don't tend to see them very much.

It is likely that the common ancestor of all the coleoids had ten arms in the Early Carboniferous or Late Devonian. The belemnites retained ten short arms covered in hooks, the squid also retained ten arms, modifying two of them into seizing tentacles. The Vampyromorphs must have slowly reduced two of the ten arms into these filaments (these are a different arm pair to the squids tentacles though), and the octopus gradually lost the filaments that their Vampyromorph ancestors had altogether, leaving them with eight arms.

There is a nice diagram that shows the difference in layout between these groups here, though you will have to scroll down a bit:

Coleoidea

One strange feature of Vampyroteuthis is that in common with many of the ancient Vampyromorphs it actually has two pairs of fins. The second pair of fins are grown in its juvenile stage but are absorbed back into the body as the creature grows, developing the second pair in its adult stage. So although in most photos you will find the animal with one pair showing, it actually has two, one pair being lost as it grows.

Most of the fossil 'squid' you will occasionally find for sale, most commonly German Jurassic specimens, are actually Vampyromorphs, only very distantly related to modern squid. One of the earliest Vampyomorphs known, Mastigophora brevipinnis from the mid Jurassic Oxford Clays displays the eight arms and two filament structure.

All very interesting!

 

[joel_ang]

Wow! I read the whole thing and now my eyes are tired, that certainy added to my knowledge. The link also answered many of my not yet asked questions, thanks for it Phil

And by the way, I wonder how it got its name? It looks kinda cuddly to me

 

[Jean]

Wow! I read the whole thing and now my eyes are tired, that certainy added to my knowledge. The link also answered many of my not yet asked questions, thanks for it Phil

And by the way, I wonder how it got its name? It looks kinda cuddly to me

The story I heard was that whoever named it (can't remember who that was!) thought that the extensive webbing between the arms looked like dracula's cape........and that the animal looked suitably evil


Next well hear that people think Archis eat boats & subs

J

 

[joel_ang]

Ah, sounds sensible

 

[heykay15]

Vampyroteuthis image from tolweb.org

does that not look evil! i was showing it to everyone, cuz it's scary, nightmares!

Note: edited by tonmo; embedded images from other sites may only be used with permission of the hosting site.

 

[NickA5582]

It doesn't look evil, just a little bloated.

 

[supernick]

It looks kinda cuddly to me

cuddly? :P