Vampy

[GPO87]

I was wondering if anyone knew about any good sites on recent vampy information. All I can find are some basic sites with very little information.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

I'm not aware of any recent research on this beast. You could try to track down some of the works by Grace Pickford or Richard Young, but I doubt you'll be able to do so online (you'll have to go to the source, paper journals and theses).

 

[William Tyson]

im showing my ingnorance but what exactly is a "vampy"

 

[Cephkid]

vampyroteuthis, "vampire squid".

 

[William Tyson]

ohh i believe i have heard of those. very deep water species?

 

[Squid Queen]

Yeah, it is really hard to get good info on vampies. Try 'In Search of the Giant Squid' by Richard Ellis - it has a little bit of info on vampies... But again, not much. I hope you find something better!

 

[Phil]

Here you go, GP087, the Tree of Life pages on Vampyroteuthis.

Fascinating animal, did you know it is the only surviving member of the vampyromorphs? They were a widespread cephalopod group with many differing forms back in the Jurassic and Cretaceous. Many of these ancient forms had two pairs of fins, a trace of this can be seen in the Vampire which grows two pairs, the first pair being absorbed back into the body shortly after hatching.

This bizarre animal is neither a squid or an octopus but probably had a common ancestor with those groups back in the late Devonian at some date approximately around 360 million years ago. That's why many people refer to it as a living fossil.

An incredible beast indeed.

 

[erich orser]

That's a terrific link, Phil! I'm a little confused, however: I've long heard of vampyroteuthis infernalis, but a few years back I also heard mention of a beastie known as vampyroteuthis diabolus. Does such a separate variety actually exist, or was the messenger (in this case, Mike De Gruy) wrong?

 

[GPO87]

Yeah! thanks for the link Phil, I did a research project on it in grade 11, and found out the skinny on it. I was amazed at all the cool stuff this species had.
Erich~ I know what you mean about two seperate species... I beleive "diabolus" was first mentioned on "Incredible suckers" (I reviewed my copy just to make sure). I'm not sure which is correct because as far as I can make out they look exactly the same. Again thanks for all the replies!

 

[GPO87]

Also, here are some common pics I have showed people, so they know what I'm talking about. (For those of you who have no clue what we're talking about )