What Is A Giant Squid?
The giant squid is the greatest living cephalod. It is about thirty feet long, having eight powerful arms and two longer tentacles attached to a bullet-shaped body. Its eyes are the size of plates. Its parrot-like beak of a mouth is strong enough to cut heavy wire. It is the largest creature on earth without a backbone. Although one can find smaller squids in every ocean, there being over 300 different kinds, the giant species lives at depths of 1,500 to 3,000 feet. No wonder it is seldom seen by man! Although old records tell of sailors’ sighting and even capturing these marine giants, such incidents were usually discounted by scientists until about a century ago. The scepticism was caused to some extent by fanciful stories. Scientists got their first good look at a giant squid in the 1870’s. For some unknown reason, possibly due to oceanic changes, many surfaced off the coast of Canada. They were sighted and some were captured. Then in November 1873, just a month after the three Newf
