This is the Magnapinna Squid which lives at depths of 4000 feet in total darkness. The video footage below is the first time they have been filmed with such clarity. The tentacles of this squid have elbows.
The squid was spotted a mile and a half below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico at an oil and gas drilling site off the coast of Houston, Texas. The footage, recorded on a remote-controlled camera, shows the creature's long tentacles hanging at right angles from shoulder-like "arms" jutting out of its body.
The magnapinna's peculiar arrangement of limbs has baffled marine biologists since the deep-sea species was first identified in 1998. One theory is that the elbows help prevent the squid's tentacles from becoming tangled, as it drags them along the seabed trawling for food. Others suggest that the squid waits for prey to collide with and get trapped among its sticky limbs.
(Link)
The magnapinna's peculiar arrangement of limbs has baffled marine biologists since the deep-sea species was first identified in 1998. One theory is that the elbows help prevent the squid's tentacles from becoming tangled, as it drags them along the seabed trawling for food. Others suggest that the squid waits for prey to collide with and get trapped among its sticky limbs.
(Link)
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