The corpse of a giant squid washed up onto a beach in the northern Spanish community of Cantabria on Tuesday, shocking beachgoers who witnessed the nearly-intact remains of an animal whose fame is steeped in lore.
The deep-sea dweller that has been the subject of centuries-old fables measured 30 feet and weight almost 400 pounds, Grind TV reported. The carcass was moved to the maritime Museum of Cantabria where officials cleaned and froze it. Meanwhile, museum scientists and the Spanish government are considering what to do with the body of the Architeuthis Dux.
Scientists regarded the finding of this enormous cephalopod momentous, for the giant squid is a mysterious creature - despite the fact that they're the largest invertebrates on the planet, they're extremely evasive. Giant squids usually live in the deep sea - their communities reach depths of between 1,000 and 3,000 feet, Grind TV reported. It's an exceptional event to find remains of a giant squid, let alone an entire carcass, washed onto the shore.
This discovery means scientists can continue studying the giant squid. In 2004, a team of Japanese researchers snapped the first publicized photos of a live giant squid. Two years later, another group of Japanese scientists brought a live female squid measuring 24 feet to the water's surface.
"It was shining and so beautiful," leader of the research team and zoologist at Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science Tsunemi Kubodera told AFP at the time of the discovery. "I was so thrilled when I saw it firsthand, but I was confident we would, because we rigorously researched the areas we might find it, based on past data."
According to National Geographic, the giant squid has the largest eyes of all animals, measuring up to 10 inches in diameter. Some wager this huge size allows the creature to easily identify objects in their dark living environment.
Only a few museums currently have giant squids on display, including the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
Check out Enrique Talledo's photos of the giant squid on his website.
