For the first time scientists filmed in its natural environment a specimen of the species « colossal squid » (video)

The colossal squid, the worst invertebrate in the world, has been filmed alive in the wild for the first time since it was identified centuries ago.

Up to seven meters long and up to half a ton, the squid Mesonychoteuthis Hamiltoni is the largest invertebrate on the planet. The individual filmed near the southern sandwich islands, in the southern Atlantic, is a baby only 11.8 inches (30 cm).

The video filmed by an international team of scientists and researchers aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute research ship, Falkor, shows an almost transparent young copy with eight tentacles floating in its natural habitat. It was filmed during a 35-day expedition in search of a new marine life.

« These unforgettable moments continue to remind us that the ocean is full of mysteries that have not yet been solved, » the expedition said.

For 100 years, the animal, a species of glass squid, has been seen only in the stomachs of porridges and seabirds. Dying adults have been filmed in fishermen’s nets before, but have never been seen alive in the deep ocean.

Little is known about the life cycle of colossal squid that lose their transparent appearance as adults. The colossal squid has sharp hooks at the end of its tentacles, which set it apart from other types of glass squid.

The expedition is attended by the Schmidt Ocean Institute, the Nipon-Necton Foundation, the University of Plymouth, the Ocean Exploration Center Geomar Helmholtz (Germany) and the British Antarctic Society.