Caught Giant Squid Has Largest Eyes in Animal Kingdom
arine scientists studying the carcass of a rare colossal squid said Wednesday they had measured its eye at about 11 inches across _ larger than a dinner plate and the biggest animal eye on earth.
One of the quid's two eyes, with a lens as big as an orange, was found intact as the scientists examined the creature while it was slowly defrosted at New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa. It has been preserved there since being caught in the Ross Sea off Antarctica's northern coast last year.
''This is the only intact eye (of a colossal squid) that's ever been found. It's spectacular,'' said Auckland University of Technology squid specialist Kat Bolstad, one of a team of international scientists brought in to examine the creature.
''It's the largest known eye in the animal kingdom,'' Bolstad told The Associated Press.
The squid is the biggest specimen ever caught of the rare and mysterious deep-water species Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, or colossal squid. It is 26 feet long and weighs almost 1,000 pounds, but scientists believe the species may grow as long as 46 feet.
''This is the largest eye ever recorded in history and studied,'' said Swedish professor Eric Warrant of the University of Lund, who specializes in vision in invertebrates. ''It has a huge lens the size of an orange and captures an awful lot of light in the dark depths in which it hunts.''
They can descend to 2 kilometers (6,500 feet) and are known to be aggressive hunters.
04/30/2008 03:16 AM
By RAY LILLEY Associated Press Writer
WELLINGTON, New Zealand
A colossal squid, caught in the Ross Sea is thawed out in a pool of brine with the help of Mark Fenwick, Museum of New Zealand technician, with Dr. Tsunemi Kubodera, Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science and Olaf Blaauw, toxicologist, Netherlands, from left to right, in Wellington, New Zealand, Wednesday, April 30, 2008.
(AP Photo/NZPA, Ross Setford)
arine scientists studying the carcass of a rare colossal squid said Wednesday they had measured its eye at about 11 inches across _ larger than a dinner plate and the biggest animal eye on earth.
