Filmed for the first time one of the most elusive and mysterious inhabitants of the abysses: it is the colossal squid Mesysychoteuthis Hamiltoni, the heaviest invertebrate in the world, which can reach 7 meters in length and the 500 kilos of weight. His existence had been known for a century, but so far no alive specimen had ever been seen swimming in his natural habitat.
The turning point came last March 9, when a puppy just 30 centimeters long was resumed at 600 meters deep in the southern Atlantic Ocean by the Subastian underwater robot of the Schmidt Ocean Institute.
The unexpected meeting took place while the researchers aboard the ‘Falkor (Too) ship’ were conducting a 35 -day expedition near the Austral Sandwich Islands to census new forms of marine life. The video obtained thanks to the underwater robot represents the first testimony of the life existence of this animal (bigger than the famous giant squid), which had been documented to date only through dead specimens or indirect observations.
“It is exciting to see the first in situ movie of a young specimen of colossal squid: for one hundred years we met them mainly as prey that remained in the stomachs of whales and marine birds and as predators of cured cods”, explains the biologist Marina Kat Bolstad of the University of Technology of Auckland, one of the independent experts consulted by the scientific expedition team to verify the video. Colossal Calamaro is the presence of Uncini at the center of his eight arms.