|
Squid (formerly calamary) is the popular name for various a carnivorous marine molluscs of the class Cephalopoda of the order Teuthoidea having two gills, eight arms bearing suckers arranged in a ring around two longer contractile tentacles with spatulate tips around the mouth at the front, an elongated body with two stabilizing fins at the back and a reduced internal horny shell. The long contractile arms are used to seize prey, which is then held by the sucker-bearing arms while the strong jaws which are shaped like a parrot's beak tear it apart.
Squid swim very fast by squirting water out of the mantle cavity by a directable outlet shaped like a funnel. When attacked, squid emit an inky dye which hides them while they swim rapidly away from the predator. Squids have blue blood which is less efficient at carrying oxygen than red blood, and restricts their ability to survive to colder water below ten degrees Celsius.
Squids vary in size, common squid (Loligo vulgaris) being about 40 centimetres long, and the mysterious giant squid (Architeuthis) in excess of 18 meters long, though no live specimens of the giant squid have been seen by scientists, their remains have been found in the stomachs of sperm whales.
 Research Squid
|
Abbreviations
Nature
