giant squid and ... colossal squid

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I'm continuing to listen to lectures on Marine Megafauna and Roman Architecture.

Roman Architecture is mildly interesting, and it's interesting to see pics of the countryside around some of the architecture and think "those trees look Italian," and to hear her recommendations of where to eat or get gelato when visiting, say, the Pantheon in Rome.

So far, Marine Megafauna has pretty much all been stuff that I'm familiar with.  With many more details (like -- how DO you tell the difference between a dugong and a manatee?  Well, the dugong has the same shape tail as a dolphin, and the manatee has a "spade-shaped" tail).

Today I learned that there is an even more massive squid than the giant squid. 

In dino class they talked about "how do you decide what's biggest?"  Tallest?  Longest?  Heaviest?

Giant squids may be longer (including tentacles) than colossal squid, but colossal squid are "girthier," as my Marine Megafauna prof described them, and much heavier.

If you are curious, there is a lot of info here about giant and colossal squid, including comparative drawings, and here is video from The Discovery Channel about the first time humans in a submersible saw a giant squid. (If you click through, or watch the video below, turn down your volume -- the Red Bull commercial that comes before the squid is deafening.)






As you probably surmised, today I'm hearing about giant marine invertebrates. Some of them are seriously creepy and/or disgusting. I won't share; it's bad enough that I have these images in my mind. I bet you don't want them in yours.............

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