Wednesday, February 13, 2013

A Flock of Flying Squid

Seriously. These oceanic squid launch themselves with their water-jet propulsion, then spread out their fins and arms into gliding surfaces.  They can fly over 30 meters in the air, presumably eaving their water-bound predators behind.  The photo here is amazing.  The behavior had been reported before, but never photographed or scientifically verified. 

2 comments:

Laurence Clark Crossen said...

This reminds one of the famous painting of a squid sprawled all over a sail boat and taking it down. Richard Ellis had it in one of his books.

Laurence Clark Crossen said...

That is, Denys de Montfort's painting of a giant cephalopod grasping a ships masts. Ellis discussed this painting published in Montfort's 1802 book. Ellis says this illustration has eight arms and "could be a squid." This was long before the (modern) discovery of the giant squid. That discovery constitiutes one of the great successes of cryptozoology because the supposedly mythical kraken turned out to be real.
Ellis, Monsters of the Sea page 119.