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Scientists have managed to re-create the appearance of a previously unknown fossil - a spiky creature thought to be the ultimate ancestor of the modern-day squid and octopus. The Austria National History Museum team used 3D scanning technology to unearth the fossil of 'Dissimilites intermedius' a layer at a time, and then created a video of how the creature lived and moved. The ammonite was discovered in sediment which formed at the bottom of the ocean during the Cretaceous period - on a surface which, 128 million years, later would lie at the top of the Dolomite mountains in the...

Boulder, CO, USA - Long before whales, the oceans of Earth were roamed by a very different kind of air-breathing leviathan. Snaggle-toothed ichthyosaurs larger than school buses swam at the top of the Triassic Period ocean food chain, or so it seemed before Mount Holyoke College paleontologist Mark McMenamin took a look at some of their remains in Nevada. Now he thinks there was an even larger and more cunning sea monster that preyed on ichthyosaurs: a kraken of such mythological proportions it would have sent Captain Nemo running for dry land. McMenamin will be presenting the results of his...

> Millions of killer giant squid are not only devouring vast amounts of fish they have even started attacking humans. Two Mexican fishermen were recently dragged from their boats and chewed so badly that their bodies could not be identified even by their own families. No wonder the giant squid are called “diablos rojos” – red devils. Monster squid are the stuff of legend. But for fishermen and marine biologists along 10,000 miles of coast from Chile to Alaska, the myth has become reality. And their story is told this week in a Channel Five documentary. >

Reno police say a squid left cooking in microwave is the suspected culprit of noxious fumes that left two apartment dwellers queasy. Authorities don't know if the squid was put in the microwave as a prank or act of cruelty when they found it Sunday night. But they believe the squishy cephalopod was stuck in the microwave by burglars and left to cook in a communal kitchen. Two residents made ill by the fumes were treated at a hospital. Police were still investigating Monday.

Dozens of large squid are reportedly washing up dead on the central Oregon coast near Heceta Head. Oregon State Parks and Recreation spokesman Chris Havel tells the Oregonian his office is hearing reports of dozens of what are probably Humboldt squid. He says they're typically much more common in warmer waters around Santa Cruz, Calif. Humboldt squid have also showed up recently in waters off the Washington coast and in the Strait of Juan de Fuca between Washington state and British Columbia's Vancouver Island. Commercial fishermen in the strait complained the giant squid were grabbing the salmon right off their...

In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day". calamari • \kah-luh-MAHR-ee\ • noun squid used as food Example sentence: Ophelia tried fried calamari for the first time from a small seafood shack near the beach. Did you know? The word "calamari" was borrowed into English from 17th-century Italian, where it functioned as the plural of "calamaro" or "calamaio." The Italian word, in turn, comes from the Medieval Latin noun "calamarium," meaning "ink pot" or "pen case," and can be ultimately traced...

Dolphins are fantastic sea chefs who have mastered the art of rustling up a soft meal of calamari, say scientists. The intelligent sea mammals have been spotted going through precise and elaborate preparations to rid cuttlefish of ink and bone to produce a soft meal of calamari. Australian researchers observed one wild female Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin The research team, writing in the science journal PLoS One, said they repeatedly observed a female dolphin herding cuttlefish out of algal weed and onto a clear, sandy patch of seafloor. The dolphin, identified using circular body scars, then pinned the cuttlefish with its...

An underwater camera at an oil and gas drilling site off the coast of Texas has captured a rare sight: a squid with "elbows."

Researchers in Northern California are dissecting what appears to be a rare giant squid found this week near Monterey Bay. The squid was 25 feet long and had tentacles as thick as a human leg. Researchers are fairly certain it's a giant squid, as opposed to another type of cephalopod.

Australian fishermen net 500-pound squid 4 hours agoMELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian fishermen have hauled up a 20-foot-long giant squid off the country's southeastern coast.Skipper Rangi Pene said Monday that the 500-pound squid was already dead when it was caught in a trawler's nets Sunday night in waters more than 1,640 feet deep.Paul McCoy, a fisheries research biologist, said it took 10 men to lift the squid onto a stretcher and place it in a storage freezer in the city of Portland. A museum will collect it this week.McCoy said an analysis by the museum would determine the type...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Marine scientists in New Zealand on Tuesday were thawing the corpse of the largest squid ever caught to try to unlock the secrets of one of the ocean's most mysterious beasts. No one has ever seen a living, grown colossal squid in its natural deep ocean habitat, and scientists hope their examination of the 1,089-pound, 26-foot long colossal squid, set to begin Wednesday, will help determine how the creatures live. The thawing and examination are being broadcast live on the Internet. The squid, which was caught accidentally by fishermen last year, was removed from its freezer...

WASHINGTON – They definitely aren’t your garden-variety calamari. The jumbo squid now lurking off the Pacific Northwest coast could threaten salmon runs and signal yet another change in the oceans brought on by global warming. The squid, which can reach 7 feet long and weigh up to 110 pounds, are aggressive. They’re thought to hunt in packs and can move at speeds up to 15 mph. In Mexico, they are known as diablos rojos, or red devils. There have been reports that they’ll attack divers when threatened. No one knows why they started appearing in increasing numbers off Washington state...

BALI, Indonesia -- More than 3,000 flying foxes dropped dead, falling from trees in Australia. Giant squid migrated north to commercial fishing grounds off California, gobbling anchovy and hake. Butterflies have gone extinct in the Alps. While humans debate at U.N. climate change talks in Bali, global warming is already wreaking havoc with nature. Most plants and animals are affected, and the change is occurring too quickly for them to evolve. "A hell of a lot of species are in big trouble," said Stephen E. Williams, the director of the Centre for Tropical Biodiversity & Climate Change at James Cook...

It sounds like something out of a monster movie. A mysterious sea creature, up to 7 feet long, weighing up to 100 pounds, with 40,000 sharp teeth. It hunts in packs of hundreds, flying through the water at 25 mph, changing color. With a parrot-like beak and strong arms, it attacks and tries to eat nearly anything it sees, including fish, scuba divers, even its own kind. But it's not a creature of Hollywood. It's real. And it's reached Monterey Bay. The Humboldt Squid, also known as the Giant Squid or Jumbo Squid, traditionally has lived in warm waters off...

The squid that washed up on an Australian beach weights 550 pounds and is 26 feet long from the tip of its body to the end of its tentacles.---AFP/Getty Images HOBART, Australia — A squid as long as a bus and weighing 550 pounds washed up on an Australian beach, officials said today."It is a whopper," said Genefor Walker-Smith, a zoologist who studies invertebrates at the Tasmanian Museum.Giant squid live in waters off southern Australia and New Zealand — where a half-ton colossus, believed to be the world's largest, was caught in February. They attract the sperm whales that...

Colossal squid hooked with rings the size of tractor tyres   February 22, 2007 - 3:30PM     New Zealand fishermen in the Ross Sea have caught what's thought to be the largest squid ever found.Its estimated weight is about 450 kilograms.The species is known as the colossal squid, shorter but much heavier than the better known giant squid.It was hauled to the surface while munching on one of its favourite foods, a Patagonian toothfish which the fishermen had hooked on a longline.Dr Steve O'Shea, from the Auckland University of Technology, says the previous largest find weighed 300 kilograms.He...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A colossal half-ton squid, believed to be the largest ever caught, may be destined for the microwave ove But researchers say they don't want to cook the massive creature ? just defrost it so they can study it better.

An adult specimen of the world’s largest known squid was hauled to the surface by a New Zealand longliner fishing for toothfish in Antarctic waters. The creature, known as a colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) and with eyes the size of a car tire weighed an estimated 450 kilograms. The squid was eating a hooked toothfish when it was hauled from the deep by the vessel San Aspiring. "It is likely that it is the first intact adult male colossal squid to ever be successfully landed," Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton said today. "The scientific community will be very interested in this...

LONDON (Reuters) - Japanese scientists have taken the first photographs of one of the most mysterious creatures in the deep ocean -- the giant squid. Until now the only information about the behavior of the creatures which measure up to 18 meters (59 feet) in length has been based on dead or dying squid washed up on shore or captured in commercial fishing nets. But Tsunemi Kubodera, of the National Science Museum, and Kyoichi Mori of the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association, both in Tokyo have captured the first images of Architeuthis attacking bait 900 meters (yards) below the surface in...

WATSONVILLE — An 18-wheel semi-truck overturned east of Murphy Crossing Road on Riverside Drive on Wednesday morning, spilling 38,500 pounds of frozen squid and taking down a power pole, cutting electricity to about 1,100 people in the Aromas area. Guadalupe Ramirez, 51, of Chular, the driver of the Del Mar Seafoods truck, walked away from the accident with a minor scrape on his arm and a small bruise on his back. Charles Baty, who police called "a good witness," said Ramirez was speeding when his truck overturned. "He was driving too fast, " said Baty, who was driving behind the...

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- Hundreds of giant squid are washing up on Orange County beaches, creating a scene more akin to "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" than "The O.C." The bug-eyed sea creatures, believed to be Humboldt squid, normally reside in deep water and only come to the surface at night. Why approximately 500 of them began washing up on the sands of Laguna Beach and Newport Beach on Tuesday isn't clear. Authorities said the squid - the biggest weighing 17 pounds - might have been pursuing bait fish and gotten too close to shore, or the tides might...

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) -- Peruvian police say they have seized nearly 1,540 pounds (700 kilograms) of cocaine hidden in frozen giant squid bound for Mexico and the United States. The drugs were covered in pepper to divert sniffer dogs and sealed in several layers of plastic and other wrappers, Peruvian police said on Monday.

They came from the deep They're big, they're slithery, they're terrifying, they've never been seen alive – and now, it's reported, they're taking over the world, with a greater total weight as a species than the entire human race. Richard Askwith reports on the mysteries of the giant squid, a profoundly elusive creature that suddenly seems to be popping up everywhere 07 August 2002 If you were looking for a suitable place to begin the last chapter in the story of mankind's dominance of this planet, you might do worst than choose Seven Mile Beach, Tasmania. Ten miles east of...

SAN DIEGO -- Hundreds of squid are washing up on La Jolla Coves beaches as a result of warm El Nino weather patterns, 10News reported. Video - Calamari Anyone? The squid may be getting stuck in a warm water current and pushed into San Diego waters 10News reported. The beachings are creating a big problem for swimmers and a big stink for residents. The area is popular with divers and snorkelers, but officials are concerned that the squids' ink may be unhealthy. The jumbo flying squid, known by their scientific name Dosidicus gigas, normally nestle in the eastern Pacific Ocean....