![]() Much of what we know about their behavior comes from videos made by Remotely Operated Vehicles. Vampire Squid, underside of arms showing fleshy spines. If it gets really annoyed, the Vampire Squid can release a sticky cloud of luminous mucus that glows for nearly 10 minutes, presumably long enough for the Vampire Squid to make a get-away into the inky darkness. In the pumpkin pose, they conceal most of the photophores, but they can light up the tips of the arms and wave them around to distract predators. Their body is covered by photophores, or light-emitting organs, which they can use to flash a wide range of patterns. If disturbed, the Vampire Squid kind of turns itself inside-out into the “pumpkin” or “pineapple” posture by curling its arms and webbing up to cover the body with the spiny cirri pointing outward. ![]() Living in the oxygen minimum zone probably helps it to avoid predators. They use ammonium in their tissues to regulate their buoyancy (ammonium is a wee bit lighter than water), reducing the need for active swimming. But the vampire squid survives perfectly well with a low metabolism and blue blood that is more efficient at carrying oxygen than that of other cephalopods. The ocean at these depths is an oxygen minimum zone with so little dissolved oxygen that most complex organisms cannot survive. They live in the lightless ocean depths 600-900 m (2000-3000 feet) deep in temperate and tropical oceans world-wide. Adding to the cuteness factor, they have adorable ear-like fins, which adults use for swimming juveniles also have fins, but primarily use jet propulsion to move around. A fully-grown individual can be 28 cm (11 inches) long with eyes 2.5 cm (1 inch) in diameter. Regarding superlatives, the Vampire Squid has the largest eyes relative to its body size of any other animal, a detail noted in the Guinness World Records. In addition to the eight arms, it has two velar filaments, in pouches in the webbing, that are analogous (and maybe homologous) to the two long tentacles of squids. The prominent feature on the arms of the Vampire Squid are fleshy spines or cirri. Like octopuses, it has 8 arms with webbing between them, but unlike octopuses that have suckers on the entire length of the arms, the Vampire Squid bears suckers only on their outermost half. It is so bizarre that scientists classify it in its own taxonomic order, Vampyromorphida, to show that it differs markedly from other living cephalopods. The Vampire Squid ( Vampyroteuthis infernalis) is an extreme deep-water cephalopod more closely related to octopuses than to squids. And the scientific name, inspired by the cloak-like webbing and the dark body color, literally translates to “vampire squid from hell.” Vampire Squid, showing cloak-like webbing between arms, large eye, and ear-like fins. With the largest eyes relative to body size of any animal, this has got to be the cutest Dracula you ever saw. It’s covered with glow-in-the-dark spots, and it can hoist its cape-like webbed arms over its head to transform into a pumpkin shape complete with outward-pointing fleshy spines. The Vampire Squid is your go-to mollusk for Halloween.
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