Topics: News, Animals, World News, Science
Video footage has been revealed as the first time scientists have observed a legendary animals in its natural environment.
In the video a squid can be seen with a translucent body billowing out and a tangle of small tentacles stretching in front of it.
The squid measured around 12 inches long, but if you think that's as big as this squid gets then you might be in for quite the surprise.
It might look small and relatively harmless here, but hooks and barbs on the suckers give away its true identity.
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It was spotted by a remote vehicle around 2,000ft below the surface near to the highly remote Sandwich Islands on an expedition led by the Schmidt Ocean Institute.
Scientists have called the footage historic.
That's because this is a juvenile colossal squid, one of the largest species of squid in the ocean that we know of.
While this one was just 12 inches long, when fully grown scientists think these squid can reach lengths of up to 33 feet and weigh up around 990 pounds.
As for those hooks on the tentacles, well when it's fully grown those can be enough to rend flesh, allowing the squid to grab its prey in the darkness of the deep ocean.
Colossal Squid might be massive, but the pitch black of the deep ocean where they mostly dwell means they can hang in the water undetected, groping through the darkness for their next victim.
This is not the first time that a specimen of the squid has been found, as an adult was caught and brought to the surface by a New Zealand fishing vessel in 2007.
However, this is the first time that the Colossal Squid has been observed in its natural habitat.
As it's a juvenile, the squid is still very vulnerable to predators, and its translucent body might be a way for it camouflage in the deep ocean.
Despite their large size and ferocity, Colossal Squid are hunted by Sperm Whales, with the large whales sometimes carrying scars from their abyssal battles.
In fact, it's these encounters with Sperm Whales which have helped to alert us of the existence of this species, as the squid's beaks have been found in Sperm Whale stomachs.
For many years, the squid was believed to be a myth, with stories about krakens long captivating our imaginations.
The video is valuable because it can show scientists how the squid behaves, for example how it moves and how it sits in the water.
It just goes to show that the sheer size of the ocean means that there is still so much out there that we don't understand.
