Giant squid

The rarity of observations of specimens and the extreme difficulty of observing them alive, tracking their movements, or studying their mating habits militates against a complete understanding. For descriptions of the Earth in (science) fiction, see Earth in fiction. No genetic or physical basis for distinguishing between the named species has been proposed, as evidenced by the placenames -- of location of specimen capture -- used to describe several of them. See Spaceship Earth and Gaia theory.. It is probable that not all of these are distinct species. Earth has also been described as a massive spaceship, with a life support system that requires maintenance, or as having a biosphere that forms one large organism. The broadest list is:. A photo taken of Earth by Voyager 1 inspired Carl Sagan to describe the planet as a "Pale Blue Dot".

Lumpers and splitters may propose as many as eight species or as few as one. The technological developments of the latter half of the 20th century are widely considered to have altered the public's perception of the Earth. The taxonomy of the giant squid, as with many cephalopod genera, has not been entirely resolved. Surveying, the determination of locations and distances, and to a somewhat lesser extent navigation, the determination of position and direction, have developed alongside cartography and geography, providing and suitably quantifying the requisite information. Eyewitness accounts of other sea monsters like the sea serpent are also thought to be mistaken interpretations of giant squid. Cartography, the study and practice of mapmaking, and vicariously geography, have historically been the disciplines devoted to depicting the Earth. However, it is thought to be impossible for a giant squid to lift its tentacles from the water. Prior to the introduction of space flight, this belief was countered with deductions based on observations of the secondary effects of the Earth's shape and parallels drawn with the shape of other planets.

The Lusca of the Caribbean and Scylla in Greek mythology may also derive from giant squid sightings. In the past there were varying levels of belief in a flat Earth because of this, but ancient Greek philosophers and, in the Middle Ages, thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas knew that the Earth was a sphere. Steenstrup, the describer of Architeuthis, suggested a giant squid was the species described as a sea monk to the Danish king Christian III c.1550. Since Earth is rather large, it is not immediately obvious to the naked eye viewing from the surface that it is an oblate spheroid, bulging slightly at the equator and slightly flattened at the poles. Tales of giant squid have been common among mariners since ancient times, and may have led to the Norwegian legend of the kraken, a tentacled sea monster as large as an island capable of engulfing and sinking any ship. In Norse mythology, the Earth goddess Jord was the mother of Thor and the daughter of Annar. [1]. As the patroness of fertility, her element is Earth.

In December 2005, the Melbourne Aquarium in Australia paid AUD$100,000 for the intact body of a giant squid, preserved in a giant block of ice, which had been caught by fishermen off the coast of New Zealand's South Island earlier in the year. The Chinese Earth goddess Hu-Tu is similar to Gaia, the deification of the Earth. It seems that the species has a much more belligerent feeding technique. Earth has often been personified as a deity, in particular a goddess (see Gaia and Mother Earth). This may disprove the theory that the giant squid is a drifter which eats whatever floats by, rarely moving so as to conserve energy. The United Nations is primarily an international discussion forum with only limited ability to pass and enforce laws. The photographs showed an aggressive hunting pattern by the baited squid, leading to it impaling a tentacle on the bait ball's hooks. There is a worldwide general international organization, the United Nations.

Among other things, the observations demonstrate actual hunting behaviors of adult Architeuthis, a subject on which there had been much speculation. Independent sovereign nations claim all of the land surface except for some segments of Antarctica. According to Kubodera, "we knew that they fed on the squid, and we knew when and how deep they dived, so we used them to lead us to the squid." Kubodera and Mori reported their observations in the journal proceedings of the Royal Society. Earth does not have a sovereign government with planet-wide authority. The photo sequence, taken at a depth of 900 m (nearly 3000 ft) off Japan's Ogasawara Islands, shows the squid homing in on the baited line and enveloping it in "a ball of tentacles." The researchers were able to locate the likely general location of giant squid by closely tailing the movements of sperm whales. There are 267 administrative divisions, including nations, dependent areas, other, and miscellaneous entries. On September 27, 2005, Kubodera and Mori released the photos to the world. The southernmost is the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, in Antarctica, almost exactly at the South Pole.

Later, DNA tests confirmed the animal as a Giant squid. The northernmost settlement in the world is Alert, Ellesmere Island, Canada. The squid left behind, attached to the lure, an 18-foot tentacle. See also space colonization. These were the first photographs ever captured of a live giant squid in its natural habitat. Out of those only twelve humans have ever walked on a world other than Earth: the men of Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17, who walked on the Moon between 1969 and 1972. It took the squid over four hours to break free, during which time the camera took over 500 photos. In total, about 400 people have been outside Earth (in space) as of 2004.

After over twenty tries that day, a 26-foot Giant squid attacked the lure and snagged its tentacle. During the exchange there are more, and sometimes others are also traveling briefly above the atmosphere. The line also held a camera and a flash. The station crew is replaced with new personnel every six months. The images were created on their third trip to a known Sperm whale hunting grounds 600 miles south of Tokyo, where they had dropped a 3,000 foot line baited with squid and shrimp. Two humans are presently in orbit around Earth on board the International Space Station. They used a five-ton fishing boat and only two crew members. Coastal areas constitute the highest density.

Their teams had worked together for nearly two years to make the accomplishment. It is estimated that only 1/8th of the surface of the Earth is suitable for humans to live on - 3/4 is covered by oceans, and half of the landmass is unsuitable, being desert, high mountain, etc. On September 30, 2004, Tsunemi Kubodera (National Science Museum of Japan) and Kyoichi Mori (Ogasawara Whale Watching Association) succeeded in taking history's first images of a giant squid. Nearly all humans currently reside on Earth: 6,411,000,000 inhabitants (January 5, 2005 est.). Approximately 65 specimens, one-fifth of all the giant squid ever found, have been found in the waters off Newfoundland; the last in December 2004. Most of the growth is expected to take place in developing nations. Larval Architeuthis closely resemble larvae of Nototodarus and Moroteuthis, with distinctive characteristics being the shape of the mantle attachment by the head, the tentacle suckers, and the beaks. On 25 February 2005 the United Nations Population Division issued revised estimates and projected that the world's population will reach 7 billion by 2013 and swell to 9.1 billion in 2050.

The search for a live Architeuthis specimen includes attempts to find live young, including larvae. Long-term climate alteration due to enhancement of the greenhouse effect by human industrial carbon dioxide emissions is an increasing concern, the focus of intense study and debate. By and large, however, squid strandings remain a mystery. Large areas are subject to man-made pollution of the air and water, acid rain and toxic substances, loss of vegetation (overgrazing, deforestation, desertification), loss of wildlife, species extinction, soil degradation, soil depletion, erosion, and introduction of invasive species. A period of 90 years between mass strandings has been proposed by Frederick Aldrich, an Architeuthis specialist, who used this value to correctly predict a relatively small stranding that occurred between 1964 and 1966. Many places are subject to earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes, sinkholes, floods, droughts, and other calamities and disasters. Many scientists who have studied squid mass strandings believe that they are cyclical and predictable, but the length of time between strandings is not yet known. Large areas are subject to extreme weather such as (tropical cyclones), hurricanes, or typhoons that dominate life in those areas.

It is not known exactly why giant squid become stranded on shore, but it is possible that a periodic though temporary alteration of the distribution of the deep, cold water where the squid live might be the cause. Irrigated land: 2,481,250 km² (1993 est.). Although strandings continue to occur sporadically throughout the world, the high frequency of strandings at Newfoundland and New Zealand in late nineteenth century have not yet been repeated. The exploitation of non-renewable resources by human civilization has become a subject of significant controversy in modern environmentalism movements. Large numbers of strandings also occurred in New Zealand during the late nineteenth century. Some of these resources, such as mineral fuels, are difficult to replenish on a short time scale, called non-renewable resources. In 1873 a squid "attacked" a minister and a young boy in a dory in Bell Island, Newfoundland. Elevation extremes: (measured relative to sea level).

For example, a specimen washed ashore in Glover's Harbour, Newfoundland on November 2, 1878 was 6.1m (20 ft) long (mantle length), and one of its tentacles measured 10.7m (35 ft) long and it was estimated as weighing 2.2 tonnes. Ocean currents, particularly the spectacular thermohaline circulation which distributes heat energy from the equatorial oceans to the polar regions, are important determinators of climate. Between 1870 and 1880, large numbers of strandings occurred on the shores of Newfoundland. Precipitation patterns vary widely, ranging from several metres of water per year to less than a millimetre. A portion of a giant squid was secured by the French gunboat Alecton in 1861 leading to wider recognition of the species/genus in the scientific community. Two large areas of polar climates separated by two rather narrow temperate zones from a wide equatorial band of tropical to subtropical climates. He first used the term "Architeuthis" in a paper in 1857. Terrestrial biomes lying within the Arctic and Antarctic Circles are relatively barren of plant and animal life, while most of the more populous biomes lie near the Equator.

Japetus Steenstrup produced a number of papers on giant squid in the 1850s. On land, biomes are separated primarily by latitude. Much of what is known about these animals come from estimates based on these, and from undigested beaks found in sperm whale stomachs. The biosphere is divided into a number of biomes, inhabited by broadly similar flora and fauna. The age of giant squids can be estimated by "growth rings" in the statocyst's "statolyth" much like counting tree rings. This biosphere is generally believed to have begun evolving about 3.5 billion (3.5×10⁹) years ago. Like all cephalopods they use special organs called statocysts to sense their orientation and motion in the water. The planet's lifeforms are sometimes said to form a "biosphere".

This makes the giant squid unfit for human consumption, although sperm whales seem to be attracted by (or are at least tolerant of) its taste. Earth is the only place in the universe where life is absolutely known to exist, and some scientists believe that biospheres might be rare. One of the more unusual aspects of giant squid (as well as some other species of large squid) is their reliance upon the low density of ammonia in relation to seawater to maintain neutral buoyancy in their natural environment, as they lack the gas-filled swim bladder that fish use for this function; instead, they use ammonia (in the form of ammonium chloride) in the fluid of their flesh throughout their bodies. Maritime claims: see United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Because sperm whales are skilled at locating giant squid, scientists have attempted to conduct in-depth observations of sperm whales in order to study squid. Coastline: 356,000 km. The only other known predator of the adult giant squid is the Pacific sleeper shark, found off Antarctica, but it is not yet known whether these sharks actively hunt the squid, or are simply scavengers of squid carcasses. Land boundaries: the land boundaries in the world total 251,480 km (not counting shared boundaries twice).

The size of these suction cups can vary from 2 to 5 cm in diameter (one to two inches), and it is not uncommon to find their circular scars on the head area of sperm whales that have fed — or attempted to feed — upon giant squid. Area:. Giant squid possess the largest eyes of any living creature ever, over 30 cm (one foot) in diameter, and their arms are equipped with hundreds of suction cups in total; each is mounted on an individual "stalk" and equipped around its circumference with a ring of sharp teeth to aid the creature in capturing its prey by firmly attaching itself to it both by suction and perforation. Continents, Oceans. The reproductive cycle of the giant squid is still a great mystery, but what has been learned so far is both bizarre and fascinating; male giant squid are equipped with a prehensile spermataphore-depositing tube, or Hectocotylus, of over 90 cm (three feet) in length, which extends from inside the animal's mantle and apparently is used to inject sperm-containing packets into the female squid's arms — how exactly the sperm then is transferred to the egg mass is a matter of much debate, but the recent recovery in Tasmania of a female specimen having a small subsidiary tendril attached to the base of each of its eight arms could be a vital clue in the solution of this enigma. Biggest geographic subdivision. Post-larval juveniles have been discovered in surface waters off New Zealand, and there are plans to capture more such juveniles and maintain them in an aquarium in an attempt to learn more about the creature's biology and habits. Time Zones, Coordinates.

The weights of recovered specimens have been measured in hundreds, rather than thousands, of kilograms. Map references:. Despite their great length, giant squid are not particularly heavy when compared to their chief predator, the Sperm Whale, because the majority of their length is taken up by their eight arms and two tentacles. Earth also has at least one co-orbital asteroid, 3753 Cruithne. . This hypothesis explains (among other things) the Moon's relative lack of iron and volatile elements, and the fact that its composition is nearly identical to that of the Earth's crust. The photos were released a year later. The most widely accepted theory of the Moon's origin, the giant impact theory, states that it was formed from the collision of a Mars-size protoplanet with the early Earth.

On September 30, 2004, researchers from the National Science Museum of Japan and the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association took the first images of live giant squid in their natural habitat. This allows total eclipses and annular eclipses to occur on Earth. There were reported claims of specimens of up to 20 m (66 ft), but none had been scientifically documented. The Moon is just far enough away to have, when seen from Earth, very nearly the same apparent angular size as the Sun (the Sun is 400 times larger, but the Moon is 400 times closer). The mantle length, though, is only about 2 m (7 ft) in length (more for females, less for males), and the length of the squid excluding its tentacles is about 5 m (16 ft). This remains a controversial subject, however, and further studies of Mars—which shares Earth's rotation period and axial tilt, but not its large moon or liquid core—may provide additional insight. They are deep-ocean dwelling squid that can grow to a tremendous size: recent estimates put the maximum size at 10 m (34 ft) for males and 13 m (44 ft) for females from caudal fin to the tip of the two long tentacles (second only to the Colossal Squid at an estimated 14 m, one of the largest living organisms). Planetary scientists who have studied the effect claim that this might kill all large animal and higher plant life.

Giant squids, once believed to be mythical creatures, are squid of the Architeuthidae family, represented by as many as eight species of the genus Architeuthis. One pole would be pointed directly toward the Sun during summer and directly away during winter. Architeuthis stockii. If Earth's axis of rotation were to approach the plane of the ecliptic, extremely severe weather could result, as this would make seasonal differences extreme. Architeuthis sanctipauli, "Southern Giant Squid". Some theorists believe that, without this stabilization against the torques applied by the Sun and planets to the Earth's equatorial bulge, the rotational axis might be chaotically unstable, as it appears to be with Mars. Architeuthis physeteris. Paleontological evidence and computer simulations show that Earth's axial tilt is stabilised by tidal interactions with the Moon.

Architeuthis martensi. The Moon may dramatically affect the development of life by taming the weather. Architeuthis kirkii. As the Moon orbits Earth, different parts of its face are illuminated by the Sun, leading to the lunar phases: The dark part of the face is separated from the light part by the solar terminator. Architeuthis japonica. As a result, it always presents the same face to the planet. Architeuthis hartingii. The same effect on the Moon has led to its tidal locking: Its rotation period is the same as the time it takes to orbit the Earth.

Architeuthis dux, "Atlantic Giant Squid". The gravitational attraction between the Earth and Moon cause the tides on Earth. A song by the heavy metal group "Tourniquet" titled "Architeuthis" is about the mysteries of the giant squid. The natural satellites orbiting other planets are called "moons", after Earth's Moon. In the film "The Squid and the Whale". With the exception of Pluto's Charon, it is the largest moon in the Solar system relative to the size of its planet. The Doctor Who episode The Power of Kroll (1978) features a carnivorous monster resembling a giant squid (the largest monster ever seen in the series) which lives at the bottom of a swampy lake, and is worshipped by the natives (despite the fact that it sometimes eats them). The Moon, sometimes called 'Luna', is a relatively large terrestrial planet-like satellite, whose diameter is about one-quarter of the Earth's.

In the Futurama episode The Deep South, Fry and Umbriel cheer at a fight between a sperm whale and a giant squid.
. The House on the Rock in Spring Green, Wisconsin has an enormous sculpture of a giant squid and sperm whale battling. The Earth is sometimes referred to as the Third Planet from the Sun because, of the nine planets of our solar system, Earth is the third closest planet to the sun. In the Sega Dreamcast game Skies of Arcadia, the main character fights (in a ship battle) a giant squid named Obispo. For other eras, see precession and Milankovitch cycles. In Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, mind-controlled Giant Squids are one of the most powerful naval units in the Soviet arsenal. In modern times, Earth's perihelion is always about January 3, and aphelion is about July 4 (near the winter and summer solstices, which are on about December 21 and June 21, respectively).

Lovecraft is known to have squid like creatures in his Cthulhu mythos. Also, the rotational velocity varies, a phenomenon known as length of day variation. H.P. The polar motion is quasi-periodic, containing an annual component and a component with a 14-month period called the Chandler wobble. Chapter 59 ("Squid") of Moby-Dick details the Pequod's encounter with a giant (or perhaps colossal) squid. In a reference frame attached to the solid body of the Earth, its rotation is also slightly irregular due to polar motion. River Moth, which flows through author Jeff VanderMeer's fictional city Ambergris, is inhabited by a giant squid. These motions are caused by the differential attraction of Sun and Moon on the Earth's equatorial bulge, due to its oblateness.

Although Tolkien's description is vague, the creature is frequently depicted as a giant squid or kraken with varying (often exaggerated) numbers of tentacles, and appeared as such in the 2001 film. In an inertial reference frame, the Earth's axis undergoes a slow precessional motion with a period of some 25,800 years, as well as a nutation with a main period of 18.6 years. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the Fellowship come up against the Watcher in the Water, a monster that lurks in the waters of the Sirannon, beneath the western walls of Moria. The Hill sphere (sphere of influence) of the Earth is about 1.5 Gm (930 thousand miles) in radius, within which one natural satellite (the Moon) comfortably orbits. In J.R.R. The orbital and axial planes are not precisely aligned: Earth's axis is tilted some 23.5 degrees against the Earth-Sun plane (which causes the seasons); and the Earth-Moon plane is tilted about 5 degrees against the Earth-Sun plane (otherwise there would be an eclipse every month). A giant squid acts as a minor character in Charles Sheffield's novel The Web Between the Worlds. Viewed from Earth's north pole, the motion of Earth, its moon and their axial rotations are all counterclockwise.

A giant squid fighting a sperm whale is shown on the album cover of They Might Be Giants' Apollo 18. When combined with the Earth-Moon system's common revolution around the Sun, the period of the synodic month, from new moon to new moon, is 29.53 days. However Benchley's description of the Beast (with clawlike teeth in the center of its suckers) more accurately describes the Colossal Squid. Earth has one natural satellite, the Moon, which revolves with the Earth around a common barycenter, from fixed star to fixed star, every 27.32 days. Jaws' author Peter Benchley's novel Beast features a giant squid terrorizing Bermuda. The orbital speed of the Earth averages about 30 km/s (108,000 km/h), which is enough to cover one Earth diameter (~12,700 km) in 7 minutes, and one distance to the Moon (384,000 km) in 4 hours. A giant squid is a key player in Michael Crichton's novel Sphere, as well as in the film version. From Earth, this gives an apparent movement of the Sun with respect to the stars at a rate of about 1 °/day, i.e., a Sun or Moon diameter every 12 hours, eastward.

A giant squid also dwells in the lake at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series of books. Earth orbits the Sun every 365.2564 mean solar days (1 sidereal year). No. From Earth the main apparent motion of celestial bodies in the sky (except meteors which are within the atmosphere and low-orbiting satellites) is the movement to the west at a rate of 15 °/h = 15'/min, i.e., a Sun or Moon diameter every two minutes. James Bond fights a giant squid in Ian Fleming's book, Dr. It takes the Earth 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.091 seconds (1 sidereal day) to rotate around the axis connecting the north pole and the south pole. Captain Nemo's submarine, the Nautilus, fights a giant squid in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea..
.