The largest mollusk on earth, the giant squid

The king squid is also called the king squid. It is not a cuttlefish, but a cephalopod mollusc in the family King Squid. It is the second largest member of the subclass Octopus, second only to the Mesopodus squid, with a total length of 13 meters and a maximum weight of 275 kilograms. It has a wide range of living water layers and is not a typical deep-sea species. The main living water layer is 200-400 meters, and there is a certain range of vertical movement in the continental shelf waters within 200 meters. The king squid feeds on other cephalopods (such as sail squid and soft fish) as well as small fish. It is distributed worldwide, and its distribution area is related to continental shelves and islands.

The animals that feed on the king squid mainly include sleeping sharks and toothed whales, among which sperm whales are the main natural enemies of the king squid. King squid is the main food of sperm whales. Sperm whales often dive into the deep sea to a depth of 100 meters to prey on king squid. Since this process occurs in the deep sea, it has never been witnessed by humans. People can only show the process of sperm whales preying on giant squid through speculation. .

In April 1978, suction cup imprints of a large cephalopod were found under the head of a male sperm whale stranded in the waters of Jiaonan, Shandong, China. The suction cup diameters were 40 mm and 20 mm, which were identified as the large middle part of the tentacles of the king squid. Between the impressions of the suction cup and the small suction cups on both sides, most of the whale meat in the middle of the impression was sucked out, and only a small part was adhered, which shows the intensity of the fight. There are similar records in special reports on other sea areas around the world.

On February 21, 2019, residents of Shimofu Town, Hamada City, Shimane Prefecture, Japan discovered the body of a giant squid with a total length of 3.4 meters. Japan's "Asahi Shimbun" said that the first person to discover the giant squid was a local female resident. At that time, she was driving home and initially thought it was a fish. When she stopped the car and approached, she discovered that it was a giant squid, which was already dead at the time. After investigation by aquarium staff, the king squid was female and had eggs in its body. The squid weighs 135 kilograms and is 3.4 meters long. The two predatory tentacles of the squid are gone. If there were any, the total length could reach 6 to 7 meters. This giant squid is the third one discovered in the waters of Hamada City, Shimane Prefecture since September 2014. An aquarium staff member said that the giant squid should live in the deep Pacific Ocean with a water depth of about 600 to 1,000 meters. It should have been washed by the Tsushima Warm Current when it came to the waters of Hamada City.

Experts believe that the largest reliable king squid should be the adult female from Tasmania with a carcass length of 2.4 meters. For reference, the king squid with a carcass length of 2.25-2.3 meters has a total length of nearly 13 meters, and its total length may exceed 13.6 meters. rice.

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