Eye of Huge Squid Is World's Largest
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By RAY LILLEY,[/align]
AP[/align]Posted: 2008-04-30 10:50:47[/align]Filed Under:
Science News[/align]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (April 29) - Marine scientists studying the carcass of a rare colossal squid said Wednesday they had measured its eye at about 11 inches across "” bigger than a dinner plate "” making it the largest animal eye on Earth.
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[/align][/align]Ross Setford, NZPA / AP
[/align][/align]Squid Discovery
Is 'Spectacular'
1 of 3
[/align][/align][/align][/align]Mark Fenwick, a technician at the Museum of New Zealand in Wellington, works in a pool of brine to thaw out the world's largest known specimen of colossal squid. Scientists measured its eye at 11 inches in diameter, making it the largest animal eye on record.
[/align][/align][/align][/align][/align]One of the squid's two eyes, with a lens as big as an orange, was found intact as the scientists examined the creature while it was slowly defrosted at New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa. It has been preserved there since being caught in the Ross Sea off Antarctica's northern coast last year.
"This is the only intact eye (of a colossal squid) that's ever been found. It's spectacular," said Auckland University of Technology squid specialist Kat Bolstad, one of a team of international scientists brought in to examine the creature.
"It's the largest known eye in the animal kingdom," Bolstad told The Associated Press.
The squid is the biggest specimen ever caught of the rare and mysterious deep-water species Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, or colossal squid. When caught, it measured 26 feet long and weighed about 1,000 pounds, but scientists believe the species may grow as long as 46 feet.
"This is the largest eye ever recorded in history and studied," said Swedish Professor Eric Warrant of the University of Lund, who specializes in vision in invertebrates. "It has a huge lens the size of an orange and captures an awful lot of light in the dark depths in which it hunts."
The squids can descend to 6,500 feet and are known to be aggressive hunters[/align][/align]
Huge Squid
