Australia is home to all manner of weird and wonderful creatures — and scientists have found another peculiar resident.
An elusive squid with long, spaghetti-like strands that lurks in the deep ocean has been spotted in Australian waters for the first time.
Researchers from CSIRO and Museums Victoria filmed five bigfin squid in the Great Australian Bight, some more than 3,000 metres below the ocean’s surface.
Before these sightings, published in journal PLOS One today, the mysterious creatures had only been reported around a dozen times worldwide — and never in Australian waters.
They sport thin, sticky strands, up to 8 metres long, that dangle from the ends of their relatively short arms and tentacles. The ‘joint’ can look like an elbow.
These spaghetti-like strands are unique to bigfin squid.
Biologists have been able to work out from these specimens that those long spaghetti-like strands are covered in microscopic suckers.
“This makes them incredibly sticky. If something bumps into it, it’ll stick to it, like flypaper or a spider’s web,”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2020-11-12/rare-deep-sea-bigfin-squid-sighted-australian-waters-first-time/12870884?