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A species of deep-sea squid has the world’s biggest light-producing organs (nautil.us)
117 points by dnetesn on June 6, 2023 | hide | past | favorite | 16 comments



That must be Taningia of course... yep. I found a few in the pelagic cetaceans. Big animals, as tall as a man.

A cool animal that can appear relatively close to the shore in Europe, Japan or US. Looking at two big oblique "cat-eyes" glowing in the pitch black deep sea and blinking at you must be a terrifying sight.


Making a subscription dialog with the same look as cookie consent dialog is brilliant and evil at the same time.


Pretty sure there have never been “230-foot-long” sperm whales.


Oh wow, glad I’m not the only one caught up on that. Like… that’s basically a 15 story building right? That’s gigantic.


Yeah that jumped out at me. Sperm whales can grow to 60'. Makes me wonder what other facts might not be accurate.


Maybe it was 230 whales each only a foot long!


I think they copied the wrong number. 230 dB is an estimate for how loud they can click.



> They placed the squid in a shipboard aquarium and turned the lights off. After their eyes adjusted to the dark, one of the scientists gently stirred the water with his hand. FLASH! A second of “brilliant blue-green light,” as they described it, was followed by the squid wrapping their tentacles around a finger and delivering a tiny-beaked bite.

Poor guy. I hope they let it go after that. Be nice to the weird little squiddy thing.


That was a fascinating read. Thanks for sharing!

That seal video chasing the squid was so captivating given the context of the article.


What's impressive is that the chase occurs in a completely dark environement. How the hell do they know where they go ?


I guess you'd say something similar when thinking about blind people? Humans relying 90% on vision is apparently killing most of their imagination.


They apparently have sensitive whiskers and hearing adapted to underwater conditions. Also really good night vision.


I sincerely hope for them they're inedible.


Fascinating. I really enjoyed that.


Is it a squid or a k̶i̶d lamp?




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