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Here’s what you will learn when you read this story:
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Antarctic pursed squid, Gonatus antarcticus, He has never been seen alive in the ocean until 2024, when he was filmed by ROV at the end of the year. These shots are finally released
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Everything that was known about this creature – which was first discovered in 1898 – is confronted with dead specimens that appear in fishing nets.
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If it were not a dangerous time they forced the expedition to stop at the area they were planning to cover, Gonatus antarcticus He may have crept into the darkness unnoticed.
Far below the glaciers and the ice fish at the sea of Wedel are dark Antarctic waters, which remained mostly unfinished by humans. Thousands of feet down on lurking bizarre creatures: sliding deep -sea worms, siphonophores, sea pigs and squid species that have never been seen alive for centuries after they were first washed ashore.
Aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Research Ship Folklore (also) In December 2024, a team of scientists examined the sea Weddell at a depth of about 7,000 feet with Rov Subastian when they saw a flash of red in the dark. Right at the end of the Powell pool, Subastian filmed video footage of a massive squid that moves and releases a cloud of greenish ink. Over the next few minutes, the squid sailed around Subastian, and the team managed to reduce the ROV lights (to get an idea of how the squid interacts with their environment) and measure the creature using lasers before firing the shadows.
Watching squid has caught the attention of ecological scientist Kat Bolstad at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. When he later reviewed the video, she was able to identify the creature as Gonatus antarcticus, The elusive Antarctic squid.
“This is, as far as I know, the first live footage of this animal around the world,” Bolstad told National GeographicS
Gonatus antarcticus Had Been Discovered by einar Lönnberg -a Swedish Zoologist Who had Gone on An Expedition to Tierra del Fuego – Extreme South Disceed in 1898. He First DIST DIST DIST of Magellan, and Collected AlREADY DEAD SPECIMENS THIS HAD BEEN ENTANGED IN FISHING NETS. A closer study revealed that squid shows significant differences from a close cousin Gonatus factorywhich was the only one known Gonatus Types at this time. Only from these observations (and the beaks of the animal placed in the stomachs of the predators) Lionberg and the scientists who followed him were able to understand something about this mysterious squid.
Lionberg described the new species of squid he discovered that he had a “very slender mantle, a very long tail and a soft body” with “long, narrow fins, long runways and small clubs with tentacles.” His hands were “short, fat and muscular” while his tentacles were “long with a relatively small club[s]large central hook[s] and a medium sized distal hook[s]S “
On three feet long, Antarctica’s squid may not grow to the enormousness of giant squid or equally traceable colossal squid (which was also seen for the first time by Subastian in January 2025), but is still a rare find. So small is known about the numbers and location of these cephalopods that it is difficult to judge how much they inhabit the South Sea. What G. Antarcticus It has to do with its bigger cousins, however, is its red color, which is actually a smart type of camouflage shared by many creatures in the dusk and midnight zones. The wavelengths of the red light cannot penetrate the waters so deep, so they look black and almost invisible to predators.
It seemed that the squid of Subastian’s frames were probably fighting something more – probably a colossal squid based on the scratches on his mantle, which is suspiciously like the brands of the hook.
Squid may have never been found if it was not for dangerous weather this Christmas Eve. On an expedition sponsored by the National Geographical Society as part of their partnership for Rolex Perpetual Planet Ocean Expeditions expeditions, the team planned to look at the unexplored pool of the abyss, which reaches nearly ten thousand feet. But the offensive of ice made them rethink their plans and instead decide to miss Subastian just outside the pool.
“What are the chances?” Researcher Manuel New from Instituto de Diversidad Y Ecología Animal (who was also a member of the Bolstad team) told National Geographic. “We shouldn’t have been there, not at that exact moment.”
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